The Guardian
by xxVisionGirlxx
Summary: Sequel to Future Tense. To protect the future she's always dreamed of, Chloe will ask a favor of her cousin. Clois.
1. Prologue

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Summary: The sequel to Future Tense. If you don't read that - this will be really, really confusing.

Notes: Okay - it's begun. I wanted to take my time with this - and then I realized that if I did, it just simply wouldn't be written. So I'm going to try to go chapter by chapter, and write as fast as I can.

Deep breath

Here goes nothin...

**Prologue**

It started, as most life-changing events tend to, with a split-second decision.

Chloe Sullivan popped her car into reverse, and her tires ground stubbornly into the gravel. The familiar hand-carved wooden sign swung invitingly in the cool, night breeze. For a moment she sat considering the alternatives - the mountains of financial aid packets that needed to be filled out and filed; her editorial for Monday's edition of the Torch that was still many drafts away from print-worthy; the prospect of a goodnight's sleep after hours behind the wheel. And then finally, on a whim - a gut-shot choice - she veered off the road that would take her home and set out towards the Kent Farm.

Her five day college tour had been cut short after her visit to Metropolis University. The moment her wheels had hit the blue and silver streaked asphalt of the student parking lot, she was greeted by her cousin - who gave her a careful hug before announcing that she'd skipped out of her morning lab to pick them up a couple of coffees. She handed Chloe one of the tall Styrofoam cups (2 sugars and non-fat creamer, just how she liked it), hooked her arm, and led her towards the ivy-wrapped campus.

Lois played tour guide, and did it exceedingly well. She showed her the high lights; ushered her quickly past the low lights. For someone who personally cared little for the college itself, Chloe had mused, Lois sure knew how to sell it.

As they walked the main drag that led to the Student Union, Lois had warned her not to look up. That urbanites could always spot the out of towners - jaws gone slack and necks craned. That's why tourists were natural marks, she'd explained - it wasn't because they were inherently naive ("You aren't all suckers." ) - but because the cityscape worked like a ready-made distraction, a big neon 'look over here' sign while someone swiped your wallet.

But Chloe ignored the advice, her eyes saucer-wide. She was positive she couldn't have looked more out of place if she tried, but she didn't care. The city had a pulse; a heartbeat that quickened her own. It felt new and exciting.

Like a million stories waiting to be unearthed.

Before she knew it the admissions papers were all but signed and she was puttering her cherry red VW bug back home, leaving Lois behind, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

She should've known better than to make Met U her first stop.

As she saw the farm house crest into view, Chloe thought idly about the speed at which a life course could shift. In a matter of moments her future had forked and she'd chosen her new direction.

Another split-second, and another destination.

Chloe rolled into the driveway and killed the engine. She was surprised to see Lana's Jeep parked a few feet ahead. Or, maybe, not so surprised. Because as much as things changed, they still had that annoying way of staying the same.

As she got out of her car, she began to wonder if the impromptu pit stop had been a good idea, after all. She looked up to see the loft's light on, burning the midnight oil. Voices floated down, and she tried to make them out, even thinking for a moment that she had heard her name. Chloe had never had many reservations when it came to eavesdropping - a reporter's prerogative - but the wind shifted and her stomach tightened and she began to get the feeling that she was supposed to be somewhere else - anywhere else - but there.

But before she had a chance to investigate the reaction, fate flipped the light switch for her.

"Lois?"

Chloe watched, stunned, as her cousin walked slowly into frame and bent over the telescope.

Over the years Chloe had developed a sixth sense about certain things. After all, nothing in her little town could ever be simply taken at face value. Whether it wore a polite veneer or flashed a frightening mask, it was never exactly as it appeared to be. She'd learned that early and adapted.

Only in Smallville could paranoia double as a survival mechanism.

Impulsively, Chloe jogged to her car and reached through the open window, grabbing her cell phone from the passengers seat. She scrolled through her digital phone book, while keeping a mindful eye on the figure in the window. She pushed send and waited.

"Hello?"

"Hey. It's Chloe."

"Miss me, already?"

"Lois, where are you?"

On the other end, Lois hesitated and then answered, "The library."

"The library?"

"Okay, fine, the bar. But the library was my next stop, I swear."

"So you're at school?"

"Where else would I be, Chlo?"

The woman in the window walked out of view. "I don't...I don't know."

Chloe looked down at her shaking had and realized she was beginning to panic. Was she losing her mind? Were years of meteors freaks finally taking their toll on her good judgement?

Lois' voice broke in.

"Is everything okay?"

"Huh?" Chloe shook off her daze. "Oh, yeah. Fine. Lois, I've gotta go."

"Chloe-"

She cut the line, and pocketed her phone.

Inside the barn she moved slowly, mindful of the way the straw crunched like cornstarch beneath her feet.

When she got to the base of the steps, she stopped. She didn't want to move any closer - but she couldn't, for the life of her, turn away.

"You're going to regret this," she mumbled to herself. "But since when is that new?"

She crept her way up the stairs, and settled just out of view.

Chloe closed her eyes and drew in a breath, and for the first time in a long time, silently prayed for a sensible - and preferably exceedingly dull - explanation. That she hadn't seen her cousin. That this was all a giant misunderstanding. That she had no reason to worry.

She held in her breath and waited.

"Why are you here?" she heard Clark ask finally.

Chloe's arms tightened around her knees. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself.

"Ahh...straight to final Jeopardy, huh?"

Chloe winced in recognition. The voice was confident, familiar...

"Lois," she whispered, in disbelief.

She twisted around and slowly peered over the ledge.

The first thing she saw was Clark. His jaw was set, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

Lana was only a few inches behind him, but looked as though she could have been a million miles away.

And then...

Lois.

She was older, but not by much. Her hair was now a deep chestnut and fell by her shoulders. The woman standing in the loft looked professional. Polished. But it was definitely her cousin. The same one that, hours before, had been pointing out Frat Row and showing her how to get around tickets issued by Parking Services. No, Chloe thought, not the same.

"Never let it be said that Lois Lane couldn't get right down to business," she said, spinning on her heels.

"Kent."

Chloe watched as she stopped dead. "What?"

Chloe shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, and rocked up for a better view. They wouldn't notice her. They were too engrossed in whatever this was.

Something fell from Clark's hands and danged like hangman.

"Your name. It's Lois. Lane. Kent."

Chloe's eyes went wide.

Another split second. Another destination.


	2. Chaos

1Part 1: Chaos

_The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, _Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos_, pg. 141)_

Married.

If she hadn't heard it with her own ears, she never would have believed it.

She'd stuck around the loft just long enough to get the gist. Even to her - Purveyor of the Wall of Weird - it had sounded ludicrous. A Lois from the future had come back to their present to stop a madman. She'd used some magical piece of paper and jumped into oblivion. Because she was brave. Because she needed to save Clark.

Because that's what a good wife would do.

Chloe couldn't help the resentment that was creeping in, and taking over. Knowing that her future would never include a life with Clark hurt, but the idea that Lois would betray her cut deeper.

Much deeper.

The rain spattered against the windshield, and Chloe watched as the wipers once again sloshed it away.

A quick glance revealed Lois, both hands firmly gripping the steering wheel as she hummed tunelessly to the radio. Her black sunglasses were propped up on her forehead, her expression light. Chloe wondered how much her cousin knew - If she had been let in on the future, and had invited her out to lunch to break the news. Turkey sandwiches and iced lattes and hollow apologies.

She was suddenly reminded of an old saying. A true friend stabs you in the front.

She idly wondered where a family member stabbed.

Chloe hadn't realized that her initially quick glance had stuck, and turned into a full fledged stare, until Lois turned and smiled.

"You're quiet today," she observed, giving Chloe's shoulder a quick nudge.

Chloe sunk deeper into the passenger's seat of the convertible. "I'm just not feeling very well."

Lois' look of sympathy only succeeded in irritating her more. She couldn't control it - everything her cousin did rubbed her like sandpaper. She nursed a bottle of Poland Springs, her face a deep scowl. Soon Lois' hand was on her forehead.

"Well, you don't feel warm. But, admittedly, I never was very good at the whole taking a temperature thing. I never took the time to check out what a fever _didn't_ feel like."

She felt another irrational wave of anger. Part of her knew it was stupid. Lois hadn't done anything to her. She hadn't expressed so much as a mild interest in Clark.

The Lois sitting beside her wasn't a Judas.

Not yet, anyway.

"What are you doing here?"

Lois' smile faltered. "Heh. Missed you too, little cous."

Chloe felt a quick pang of guilt as hurt registered on her confused cousin's face. She back peddled. "I just didn't expect you back in Smallville so soon."

Lois let out a breath of relief, and shook her head as if embarrassed by whatever she had just been feeling. "Wasn't planning on it, actually," she admitted with a shrug. "But I couldn't exactly ignore two late night phone calls, now could I?"

"Two?"

"Yeah, you and Clark."

Chloe sat up. "Clark called you ?" She flipped off the radio. "What did he say?"

"He didn't really say anything. Substantial, that is. He asked me a lot of random questions. We talked about school and stuff." Lois was silent for a while before she shook her head. "It was weird."

Chloe took a chance. "A bad weird?"

A ghost of a smile graced Lois' lips. "No. Not a bad weird."

Chloe felt resentment nipping at the edges. "So you came to see Clark?"

"No. I came to check up on you," Lois corrected. "Truth be told I probably wouldn't have come at all if it had just been Clark. You kinda freaked me out, Chlo."

Chloe sighed. "Sorry I scared you. It was nothing." She took another sip of her water. This was all so stupid.

"Well, I'm glad it was a false alarm. Wish I could say the same for Smallville."

She cringed at Lois' use of the playful nickname. Was that what she called him in the future? On their wedding night? In the throws of passion? A hint of teasing as she claimed him as her own.

"So after I tried calling you I drove over to the farm to check things out. Mrs. Kent said that he was down at those caves - hanging with the sleestaks or whatever it is he does down there. So I get there and –" Lois shook her head. "You're gonna think I'm nuts."

"What?"

"Chloe, there was this big, swirly thing - a hole. And this lady was attacking Clark."

"Lady?"

"Yeah. Brown hair. White blazer. Kinda slutty skirt."

Chloe's eyes went wide. The future her. Lois had met herself and had no idea.

"What did you do?"

Lois snorted, like she was insulted Chloe even had to ask. "I kicked her ass."

"You what?" In spite of it all, Chloe forced herself to laugh. Because it really was funny.

Lois misunderstood and jumped on the defensive. "She had it coming," she argued. "Anyway, I wish I could have gotten a better look at her - made a positive ID. Clark was zero help in that department."

"What do you mean?"

"He can't remember."

Chloe's heart stopped. "He doesn't remember anything? You're sure?"

"The boy is a walking void."

Chloe saw the faint glimmer at the end of what had been a very dark tunnel. If neither knew about the future, who said that it had to end up that way?

"Anyway," Lois continued, "I walked him back to the farm, gave him a caffeine jolt, and caught him up as much as I could. I think he was pretty shaken."

Chloe took it all in.

She rested her head against the seat, and gazed out the window. Outside the rain came down in sheets. She was beginning to wonder if the storm would ever pass.

"Would you ever...pursue Clark?"

Chloe hadn't meant to ask that, and it took her by surprise when she did. She had meant to ask something less direct. Something that would help restore her fraying faith in Lois. But she let the question stand - too tired to be subtle, too desperate for her to prove the future wrong.

Lois scrunched her nose. "What? You mean if he, like, stole my purse or something?"

Chloe frowned. "No. Romantically."

"Oh."

It hadn't been the reaction she expected. The 'hell no!' or 'In his dreams' that would have made some of the anger lift. Her answer had been 'oh' and now it hung between them.

"Because you know how I feel about him," she prodded.

Lois smiled sadly. "Yeah, Chlo. I know."

Her tone was soft. Familial. Chloe refused to let it sway her.

"So promise me."

"Promise you?"

Lois' review mirror was off kilter. Chloe caught her own reflection. She looked into her eyes and wondered what she had become.

What they had become.

"Promise me that nothing will ever happen between you and Clark."

She watched the way Lois' gaze never shifted from the road ahead. "Okay, Chloe." The way her hands tightened around the steering wheel. "I promise."

Chloe turned back to the window. She closed her eyes and told herself what she had done would be for the best.

It was, after all, just another direction.

* * *

_He is falling._

_Or something close to it. _

_Below him the world spins; the ground is a blur of colors. He clutches at the air, and the wind whips furiously at his clothes. A dark blue t-shirt. A blood red coat. _

"_Remember," a voice calls from somewhere close. _

_And then he begins to slow. Soon his feet touch the ground, as if placed with the utmost care. Like he is precious. Like he is porcelain. _

_He turns, surrounded by darkness. Suddenly firelight flickers and he's looking at the cave wall. _

_A familiar symbol begins to glow and he tries to walk to it. He looks down to find himself knee-deep in dirt, and struggles against it._

_The walls weep, and the symbol's light is soon doused out by the coming blood._

"_Remember."_

Clark opened his eyes, only to find himself in his bed. As the dream slipped away, the voice still echoed in his mind.

"Lois."


	3. Invisible Hand

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: None that I can think of. Had a title-rename...Shifts in the plot demanded it. It wasn't my intention for this to take so long -- it just wasn't coming out right. I'm still not 100 with it -- but this chapter needs to be out of the way so we can get to the good stuff.

Feedback: Much appreciated.

Part 2: Invisible Hand

_Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant_ - Seneca

Destiny.

She didn't have the best track record in that department.

It hadn't meant love at first sight or a deep-seated calling or a winning lotto ticket. It wasn't Cinescape. Slo-motion. A Pinpeat orchestral crescendo.

No. For her it had been a mother lost too soon. An errant sister. Distant father.

The anti-Hallmark card.

Every fork in her road had taken her down a rockier path. A right to a cousin's grave site. A left to a college admissions repossession. A right - psychotic plastic surgeon. Left - Met U disciplinary board. Right...

Watch out, that next step is a doozy.

She was hardly a fatalist. She liked to believe she had some semblance of control - That before she shuffled off this mortal coil, the path she forged would be her own. But at 19, she had discovered that most of the events in her life were of the 'out-of-her-hands' variety, with a tendency towards the catastrophic.

A future written in supernovas.

Those around her had pegged her as a lightning rod for trouble - not that she did much to shake off the mantle. She'd boozed and conned and sucker-punched her way to self-fulfilling prophesy- but they were mixing cause and effect. For the most part she wasn't seeking trouble out. It was hunting her.

No matter what she did - whether she played the perfect daughter or the prodigal - there was always a bullet with her name on it. Destiny had a way of getting the best of her.

It was doing it right now.

On the black and white grid. 23 across.

Lois chewed thoughtfully on her pen, and studied her Daily Planet crossword carefully - more than half the boxes already filled. Around her the Talon buzzed with it's usual mid-morning clientele - teens and adults alike, with drooping eyelids and monkey's on their backs. Slaves to the Arabica bean.

Her kind of people.

The three-late-night-shifts-from-perky waitress threaded through the crowd, Lois' drink balancing precariously on her tray. "Short non fat mocha decaf. No foam, no sugar, no whip," she announced with a tight, polite smile. She swept away the hair that had escaped from her fraying bun, cringing at the loud bellow that came from a large man three tables over who still hadn't received his espresso.

Lois made a mental note to always be on the receiving-end of a cup of coffee.

She searched the pockets of her purple knit blazer for some cash, coming up empty. She bent down to grab her wallet from her bag and soon saw a familiar pair of work-scuffed boots clomp their way into view.

"I've got it," she heard him say, from somewhere above her.

Lois rose - her finger quick to the draw; a gunslinger of protest - only to find Clark already pulling a couple of bills from his wallet and paying. He said a thanks and called the waitress by her actual name, which surprised Lois for a moment until she realized that she was in Smallville where everyone knew everyone else. Ye Olde Town of Zero Privacy.

He lifted her mug and held it out for her. "Consider it a thank you, for the other day."

She took a sip and felt her cognitive cogs groan to life. "I should save your life more often."

Lois watched him quietly over the rim of the mug without really wanting to, as he shucked off his jacket and draped it on the back of his chair. He was making himself comfortable. Planning to stay a while. An irrational feeling of guilt twisted her stomach, and she glanced at her watch.

"I stopped by Chloe's house looking for you. Her dad said you'd be here."

Or maybe not so irrational. Things between her and her cousin had been tense since their car ride the day before. She still didn't fully understand what the problem was - Chloe had been less thorough with the explanation than she had been with her demands. But Lois did know it involved the farmboy to her immediate right. And that she wasn't about to rock the boat.

She set her coffee - his thank you - down. "Chloe left for some official Torch business before I woke up. I called and told her to meet me here when she was done." She hesitated as she considered exactly how much to reveal, ultimately deciding on none of it. "I couldn't go back to the city without saying goodbye to her."

"Of course not," Clark agreed. Folding his arms, he cocked an eyebrow. "So was I your next stop?"

Lois quickly busied herself with 23 across, hiding her guilt behind the front page of the Metro section. Her plan had been to slip out of town without so much as a 'catch ya later' to the guy. She assumed from his wry smile, that he knew this.

She hoped he would chalk it up to her 'innate rudeness' - his words, not hers. That he'd call her 'impossible' or 'selfish,' grab his jacket and make one of those Hollywood exits - where the whoosh of the slamming door is followed by whispers from the crowd.

Not that she was much for drama - but it would get his butt out of that seat and put some miles between them.

The last thing she needed was Chloe walking in and seeing them... not understanding that it was just...

Damn. He wasn't moving.

"What's a 4 letter word for 'destiny'?" She changed the subject. Or, at least, thought she did.

"What?"

"It's obviously not kismet or providence or fortune," she babbled, tucked safely behind the broadsheet. "And it can't be 'fate', unless Adam Smith's famed economic manifesto was actually '_F_ealth of Nations."

He considered this for a minute. "Weird."

Lois wrinkled her nose. "I know. Must be a typo."

"No. That's the answer. Weird."

"Come again?"

She felt him move beside her, resting his elbows on the table. "It's the anglo-saxon conception of fate. How past actions continuously shape our futures," he said. "Their universe was embodied by the World Tree, this gigantic oak that was nourished by the Well of Weird."

Lois looked up from her paper. "Huh? Like Chloe's collage-thing?"

Clark smiled, happy to finally have her full attention. "No. _Well_," he corrected with a laugh. "Anyway, it was maintained by the three Weird Sisters, each of whom who held a specific aspect of fate in their hands. Most cultures have a similar incarnation. The Romans have the Fatae. The Greeks have the Moirae."

Clark ended with a self-satisfied nod and Lois rolled her eyes. "Well, thanks for the history lesson, Mr. Peabody, but I said four letters."

Clark tipped down the edge of her paper and peered over. "Try W-Y-R-D."

Lois looked at him skeptically and he motioned for her to just trust him. She shrugged her shoulders and gave it a go.

W. Y. R. D.

Perfect fit.

"I'm impressed, Smallville," she said. And she sort of was. "Just when I thought I had you pegged you go and throw me for a loop."

He gave her a once-over. "There's a lot of that going around." It was beginning to bother her that he looked no where near as uncomfortable as she felt. But why would he? He hadn't made any promises - hadn't seen how utterly wrecked her cousin had looked at the idea of them together. He was free to say or do or feel anything he wanted while she was left to squirm at their mere proximity.

She was like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar, and she didn't even want the damn oreo.

"What do you mean?"

Clark leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "I didn't know you were a crossword fan," he said, casually. Lois frowned. That's not what he had meant at all. Here she was doing all the work and he didn't even have the courtesy to lie convincingly. Clark scooted closer and craned his neck for a better look. "And in ink? I guess it's my turn to be impressed."

He smiled brightly and made their friendship seem effortless. As usual, he didn't have a clue.

She resumed her cold-shoulder. "What can I say? I live dangerously," she said as she scribbled away. 13 down. Onus.

Clark studied her pen and after a moment raised an eyebrow. "It's erasable."

"I said 'dangerously.' Not 'stupidly.'" 34 across. Incessant. "Besides, I never have been a fan of permanence. I'm sure your frontal lobe can relate, Amnesia Boy."

Clark blew out a breath. "About that. I think I'm starting to remember some things," he admitted.

"Really?" A part of her wanted him to stop right there. She had no idea what had happened to him down in those caves, but it had affected him in some profound way - that much was obvious. On their walk back to the farm, he was suddenly excited to know everything about her, and trust her with his own secrets - Like that night on the telephone - the one he had no memory of. The one she selfishly wished he did.

Just when she thought she finally had the game down pat - the rules had changed.

"I had a dream last night - or maybe it was a memory. In a weird way, it didn't feel like either - if that makes any sense at all. I feel like I'm close to figuring out what happened the other day, but I need your help." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I need you to come with me to Shuster's Gorge."

"I can't," she said quickly. A small bell-chirp snapped Lois' gaze from the hand on her arm to the front door. Somewhere in that millisecond she managed to suck in half the room's oxygen.

An elderly couple shuffled into the cafe.

False alarm.

"Please. I'm not sure why, but I don't think I can do this without you."

"I have to meet Chloe."

"When is she supposed to be here?"

Lois looked down at her watch and frowned. "20 minutes ago."

Her grabbed her hand and tugged her out of her seat. "Well, then there is no possible way she can get mad."

Lois put up a fight, but let Clark lead her out of the Talon.

Those Weird Sisters could take a lunch break. Destiny wasn't going to screw her over this time.

She could handle that just fine by herself.

* * *

There had been no double-take when the woman walked into the Torch. When she stepped in front of her desk - the added years lending her an intimidating confidence - Chloe hadn't so much as flinched. Maybe, after that night in the loft, nothing could really surprised her anymore. Maybe next to a time-traveling cousin everything seemed trite and predictable.

Or maybe, deep down, she had been bracing herself for the fallout.

She rose from her chair slowly and silently, and steeled herself before her firing squad.

"What do you want?" Chloe asked.

Lana smiled, a rude twist of the lips. "I want my world back."


	4. Augury

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: I've decided to split The Guardian into 2 parts – this first section, which will include the prologue - part 5 will be called "Through a Glass, Darkly." I'll try to have part five posted before Tuesday - as well as a trailer for section 2 "Destinations" — then I'm off on a 3-week road trip.

This is a long chapter. Hope you like it.

Part 3: Augury

_All Nature is art, unknown to thee;  
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;  
All discord, harmony not understood;  
All partial evil, universal good;  
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite  
**One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. **_

- Alexander Pope

That thing about nothing surprising her anymore? She took it all back.

The past half an hour had contained enough heart-flopping surprises to last a lifetime - Although the simple revelation that her best friend - the not-so-mild-mannered Clark Kent - was an alien could have filled that quota on its own. While Chloe felt some relief in finally knowing what Clark had been hiding about himself for all those years, the delivery had left a bad taste in her mouth. It wasn't the heart-felt confession that she had always hoped for - the one where Clark sat her down; where he told her how much she meant to him and how he trusted her. It had been an appendage - an incidental footnote - to someone else's story.

Lana Lang's story.

But she was getting ahead of herself.

All stories have a beginning and Lana's was set 10 years in the future. She woke up one morning to discover that the world around her had changed. At first, it was the little things she noticed. Messages that were supposed to be on her machine were gone. Little trinkets and keepsakes were missing from their normal spots. But it wasn't until she sat down with a glass of orange juice and opened up her newspaper that she finally realized something was really and truly wrong.

It wasn't so much what she saw as what she didn't see.

Superman.

Not only was Chloe's best friend from another planet, but in the future, he took to wearing a costume and playing the world's champion. Lana showed her an article from when he saved Metropolis from a tsunami. In the photo he stood strong, arms crossed and cape whipping in the wind. It was the pose of a hero.

But once again this wasn't the climax to the story - simply exposition.

Lana had gone through the whole paper twice, looking for any sign of his existence. Most newspaper's have police notes; the Daily Planet had the Superman Watch - page B-24. That day it had been replaced with an ad for laundry detergent that touted 'whiter whites.'

On the front page, the lead story's byline belonged to Lois Lane. To Chloe's continued surprise, not only did her cousin work at the Daily Planet, but she and Clark made up a Kerth-winning writing team. Partners in life, and partners in work. She could hear Lois' voice in her mind, high-pitched and incredulous. _He's dipping his pen in the company ink! My ink!_ It almost made Chloe laugh.

Almost.

Lana, of course, had panicked. She immediately called Lois who, to her dismay, was surprised to hear from her. It seemed that while they were close friends in the world Lana knew, in the new incarnation, they were barely acquaintances. However heartbreaking at the time, this had ultimately worked to Lana's advantage. When she bombarded Lois with questions about her life, it simply looked like a long over-due effort to catch up. Throughout the night Lana had been able to figure out where the old, familiar history ended, and the new one began.

According to Lois, the last time she had been to Smallville was during her first semester at Met U. When Lana asked why she had never gone back to visit, Lois explained that it had just been easier spending time with Chloe in the city. That going to Smallville would have just be too complicated.

"Why?" Lana had asked. "What made it complicated?"

And Lois told her.

A promise.

There was the variable. The something that had never happened in the world Lana knew.

And it's here, towards the end of act I, that Chloe makes her entrance in the narrative. Because, according to the woman in front of her - the time traveler - the sole survivor of a lost world - Chloe had committed the screw up to end all screw ups. With one simple request, the life Lana knew and loved warped into something unrecognizable.

And so she took her Scroll of Templar - the same paper that Chloe's cousin had used - and traveled back in time to find out what had happened.

At first Lana couldn't understand why the promise would suddenly exist - how an event could spontaneously appear in their time line. But when it was Chloe's turn to talk, and she had confessed to witnessing the exchange between Clark and the future Lois two nights before, Lana realized that this had been the key to the change.

For the most part Chloe got the picture. Somehow she had seen something she was never supposed to see - and because of it did something she was never supposed to do. Her downfall in a nut shell.

What she didn't fully understand was what any of it had to do with Lana. When she asked her, the older woman just scowled disapprovingly as if Chloe hadn't heard a single thing she had just said.

"Because I'm the Guardian," Lana told her. She was going through the contents of her black duffel bag - old photos and magazine clippings from her world that she had used to narrate her story. Pictures of the future. She took a moment to lift the hem of her dark indigo blouse to prove the point. A visual aide. "We've been over this."

"Right. The tattoo." Chloe tilted her head. "Kinda looks like two snails fighting."

Lana's eyes squinted into dangerous slits. "It's a mystically imbued symbol, not a Rorschach test."

Chloe crossed her arms and rolled back and forth on the wheels of her computer chair. "Taking our body art a little seriously, aren't we?" If she thought Lana was uptight now, her future self trumped her threefold. "And while we're on the subject, why a tattoo? Did you ever consider business cards? Or maybe some kind of badge?"

She could tell the lightness of her tone was spiking Lana's blood pressure. She zipped up the bag - hard - and put it aside. "I think you're misunderstanding me. I don't have the tattoo because I'm the Guardian, I'm the Guardian because I have the tattoo."

Chloe shrugged. "Semantics."

Lana shook her head. "No. The symbol itself protects me. I don't pretend to know how it works - ten years of research and I've barely scratched the surface. But it's powerful."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Chloe's gaze darted around the room as she frantically searched for a place to stash the older woman. Somehow she didn't think they'd be able to explain her existence without becoming the proud new owners of a couple of straitjackets and a private room at the Sommerhault Institute. Lana, however, continued to sit calmly on the edge of the desk.

"Come in," she called over her shoulder.

Chloe turned to her, confused. "Who is it?"

"I called in some help. I figured another set of hands couldn't hurt. Plus I thought that it might make the situation a little more palatable for you to see a familiar face."

The door cracked open and someone slid inside. She peeked back into the hall - seemingly to check if she had been seen - before closing it behind her and flicking the lock.

Chloe stared at the newcomer, her jaw to the floor. "Lana?"

The younger Lana tore her gaze from her older self - who she had been observing with a great deal of interest - and gave a tiny wave. "Hey, Chloe."

Chloe looked back and forth between the two. A living, breathing before and after. "Well, it's definitely a _familiar_ face."

As the older Lana continued, both Chloe and Lana listened carefully. Chloe looked over to find her friend completely transfixed. Chloe couldn't blame her - her future self was strong and beautiful. Thoroughly impressive, if not a bit of a wet blanket.

"I spent the better part of my early twenties studying the scrolls," she explained, as she paced the length of the Torch. "I even took a job as a curator for the archives at the Metropolitan Institute so that I could spend my day with the significant texts."

Chloe quirked an eyebrow. "You're a librarian?"

"I like to think of it as my secret identity." Lana chuckled. If she had made a joke, Chloe didn't get it. "Besides, the job market isn't exactly clawing for people with a PHD in 17th Century poetry. It's turned out to be a blessing though - through a department connection I was able to get my hands on a copy of _The Spell book of Countess Marguerite Isabelle Thoreau_ - after a few months I had nearly translated it all.

"There is an entire section dedicated to the symbol - and what it means for the bearer." Lana unconsciously rubbed her lower back. "It lets me use the Scroll of Templar and remain completely unharmed. I'm not even susceptible to the nausea that typically goes with it. We think the scroll itself is somehow connected to the Countess. Perhaps even written by her."

The word choice peeked Chloe's interest and so she asked, "We?"

"Yeah - Me, Clark, Lois, you - well, the old you."

"So we all know about your...um...guardianship?"

Lana hesitated. "Not exactly. Up until a few days ago, my time, you were all in the dark. It was too dangerous for anyone to know I had possession of the Scroll. If anyone saw the tattoo, I just told them it was courtesy of a particularly eventful Parisian night. It seemed to do the trick. And I think it even lifted me up a notch in Lois' eyes."

The younger Lana bit her lip, and Chloe could tell she was making a mental note. "Thanks for the tip."

Lana sighed and continued. "But even with all the precautions, my apartment was still looted months ago. Someone got the scroll and then put it in the hands of Jason Trask."

Young Lana's eyes widened at the mention of the name. "That's the guy who was after Clark," she said.

"Right. He used my scroll to go back to Smallville - so I had to come clean about everything and prepare Lois the best I could for her trip back to stop him."

At this revelation, Chloe stiffened. "Wait. If it's so easy for you to time hop with the scroll, why send my cousin on a suicide mission?"

Lana's face was expressionless. "Because she was always meant to go," she said, dispassionately.

"How do you know that?" Chloe snapped.

"Because when I was 18, Lois came back through a portal in the cave wall to save Clark. She told me about my tattoo and my responsibilities as the Guardian and gave me the scroll. And she told me something else, too."

It was a weird explanation, but that seemed par for the course. Chloe felt her anger wane. "The winning lotto numbers?" she wagered, lightly.

The younger Lana smiled, as if warmed by the recent memory. "She said to keep an eye on you and Clark."

Chloe looked to the older Lana. She nodded. "It's all cyclical."

"The tattoo also makes me invulnerable to most illnesses," Lana ticked off the growing list on her fingers. "It allows me to function on less sleep."

"Oh!" The younger Lana broke in. "Sometimes it glows. I don't really know what that's about, but in a pinch it makes a great nightlight."

The older Lana continued, "And, of course. it protected me from the giant mind wipe that happened when you altered reality. The symbol is part of an anchoring spell - which was explained to me when I was younger by Lois, who I told before she went to save Clark. It's supposed to work as a safeguard, in case the Scroll ever fell into the wrong hands. "

Lana picked up her duffel bag and started dumping out the contents in front of Chloe. "That's why all of these clippings and photos still exist. They bear the mark of the Guardian. Anything that has this symbol will remain unaffected by changes caused by the Scroll." Lana looked at the giant pile she had just made on the desk and frowned. "I never knew which stuff was important to save - eventually I just had a stamp made."

She reached far into the bag and pulled out a large, cream colored book.

"And then there's this." Lana handed it to Chloe, and motioned for her to flip through. It was pages and pages of bulleted lists, all in neat rows with highlighted dates at the top of each. "I also kept a diary - Lois' suggestion. It has everything that has ever happened since I was told I was the Guardian. Anything I heard - any news story, any personal story - anything even remotely significant I recorded."

Lana took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "My memory and these old photos are all that's left of the world I knew. Your promise changed everything, and I'm here to change it back."

Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I don't see how my one little favor could do everything you just said."

"Every action has a consequence - whether it be immediate or long-reaching." Lana turned to her younger self. "Do you have your scroll?"

Lana nodded and reached into her pink handbag. "Yeah. I brought it like you asked."

The older Lana took the paper and produced another from a pocket of her duffel bag. "Maybe an illustration will help." She held the two scrolls side by side. "These are the same exact scroll."

Chloe scanned them - they were identical in size and in the symbols they bore, though one looked a little more worse for wear. "Yeah, ok. They look alike."

"No. They are actually the same. This scroll," Lana shook the one in her left hand, "will be this scroll," and then the one in her right hand. "10 years in the future."

Chloe took a minute to wrap her head around that one. "Ok."

"Hand me those scissors," Lana said, and Chloe grabbed the pair from the jar. The older Lana then handed one scroll to the younger and had her hold it out for Chloe to see. Lana gripped the other scroll firmly in one hand, her scissors poised above the right corner. "Watch."

Lana clipped a tiny piece off of her scroll. Chloe watched as the confetti-like portion flittered down to the ground. Lana snapped her fingers and redirected Chloe's attention to the scroll in the young Lana's hands.

It now had a corner missing, too.

"You change the present...you change the future. Get it?" Lana said. "You keep Lois and Clark apart and there is a ripple effect. He never becomes Superman. Lois never enters our social circle. It changes every interaction you, or I, or anyone else has with them. Everyone is thrown off course."

The words had sunk in, but Chloe wasn't ready to accept them as gospel. "Okay - so lets say it was me that caused the future to change. If there really is a big plan, how do you know that this wasn't supposed to happen all along? That we aren't now finally on the right path thanks to me?"

"It's not the way it's supposed to be."

"Says who?"

"Me."

Chloe scoffed. "Oh, right. Because you're the Guardian and have a big, bad tattoo and know what's best for everyone."

Lana stalked her way over until she was right above Chloe. "In the future _you _created, crime rates are through the roof. Lois is a workaholic, more interested her next headline than living her own life. Clark is MIA and God only knows where you are - because I looked. Our world wasn't perfect - but for the most part we were happy, and together. If that isn't a compelling argument, I don't know what is."

"Chloe -you need to think about this," the other Lana added.

"So, what? You're going to double team me? Strong-arm me into helping you get your old reality back? You come back here all Ghost of Christmas Future, and tell me that I train-wrecked the world. Well, I don't believe it!" Chloe raised her chin. "I did what I thought was right."

Lana barked a laugh. "What was right? Sounds to me like you did what you had to, to make sure Clark stayed on the market."

"This was never about Clark!" Chloe snapped. She stood up from her chair and looked directly into Lana's eyes. "This was about me and Lois. I wasn't going to sit idly by and wait for a future where she betrayed me. And if you knew anything about my cousin, you'd know that she would have wanted me to do anything in my power to stop that."

There it was. The truth - her defense - laid out. She dared the older woman to challenge that. She crossed her arms and waited for Lana's reaction.

"Oh, Chloe."

Lana bowed her head and shook it sadly. When she looked up again, she was smiling a small, miserable smile.

"She didn't betray you," Lana said, softly. "You were the one that set them up."

* * *

"Ugh, I feel like one of those land-survey markers."

Lois stood in the exact spot that Clark had positioned her, arms crossed and fidgeting, despite his instructions to stand still. If she _had_ been a survey marker, she would have been currently marking the northwest section of Shuster's Gorge, barely a stone's throw from the precipice.

Clark stood 30-odd feet away, his eyes closed, concentrating on a feeling that was percolating inside of him. He had brought them both there in an attempt to recreate the scene from his dream - the shadowy images that were jumbled in his mind. If he could just remember what he had seen there, he would able to get back some of his memory of the past few days. That was the theory, anyway.

Lois was mumbling to herself. "God this is boring. Standing here like a statue on some stupid gorge. I wonder how long this is going to take..."

Clark took a deep, calming breath. His eyes remained shut. "Lois?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

He smiled, slightly, when he heard her hurrumph. He cleared his head again and tried to focus on the scene. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind were the memories he needed to retrieve. He just had to draw them back to the surface. He just had to concentrate...

Something that was out of the question with Lois around.

"What exactly are you doing?" she asked, annoyed. "And if you say 'finding your center' I'm outta here."

He finally opened his eyes to find her smirking at him, as usual. "I'm trying to remember my dream - the details. I figure if I can remember them, they might help me remember the past few days." He shrugged. "Right now it's all I have to go on."

Lois seemed on board with this plan. Or, at least she hadn't scoffed at it.

"I'm taking an intro to psychology course this semester - one of those night lecture deals that meet once a week and are 4 hours a pop. Dream interpretation is a pretty complicated stuff." He motioned for her to move a bit to her right. She shuffled over and then continued, "On one hand you've got Freud, who thought everything was symbolic and that dreams were all about wish fulfillment - your greatest desires realized. What exactly happened in yours?"

"Someone threw you off that ledge."

"Oh."

Lois took a moment to stretched her limbs, the standing-in-one-place was making her stiff. "And then there's Jung. He said the key was archetypes, that dreams were actually about role play. You know, reoccurring themes that help people define themselves or those around them."

"Can you take another step back?"

She did. "How's this?"

"Good."

"You didn't happen to save me after I went Wile E Coyote off the cliff, did you?"

"I tried to," he admitted, lamely.

She, apparently caring little about the grisly fate of dream-Lois, flicked her wrist. "There you go - your basic Hero figure, with a little Ubermensch thrown in for good measure."

"So who do you think was right?"

"None of the above," she said. "The part of the brain that controls what we dream is the same one that's linked to our sensory perception - it processes what we see and hear and smell. That's why dreams feel so real - because on biochemical level, they pretty much are. The popular theory now is that dreams are made up of things we've actually encountered during the day. Like reruns. Or echos."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying I had a dream about someone throwing you off the ledge, because I saw someone throw you off the ledge?"

This time she did scoff. "No. I'm pretty sure I would remember that," she said. "But you did see me yesterday - we spent the afternoon together, so I was clearly tucked into your subconscious. As for the ledge? Maybe you took in the late show of Thelma and Louise. I don't know. I'm sure there is some kind of sensible explanation. I kinda missed the second part of that lecture."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "It was dollar pitcher night at O'Neils."

"Lo-is."

Lois threw up her hands. "How was I supposed to know something I was learning in school was actually going to have real world application?"

Clark just rolled his eyes and directed her another few inches to her right.

He wasn't sure if he was buying her psych 101 analysis, but she had brought up a good point.

"Where _were_ you yesterday morning?"

"Uh-uh." Lois wagged a finger his way. "The past 24 hours of my life are all present and accounted for, thank you very much. We're here for your lost day - not mine."

Clark conceded the point with a nod. "In that case take another step back." This time when Lois moved into position, something clicked in Clark's mind. "Wait. Stay right there," he told her, quickly, before she had a chance to move.

Some of the darkness began to lift as he looked out at image of Lois on the cliff's edge.

Lois looked at him expectantly. "Now what?"

"I don't know, but in my dream you were right there." Clark closed his eyes again and concentrated on the feeling the visual was giving him. The deja-vu that was hovering just below the surface. "I was here. I know I was." His eyes popped back open, and narrowed in steely resolution. "Now I just have to figure out why."

"How?"

"Maybe I left something behind."

"That storm probably washed away anything in the way of a clue."

"There has to be something."

Lois shrugged and began to look around. Her foot scuffed the ground and sent a few pebbles into he gorge. For the first time Clark noticed just how close she was to the edge - his heart leapt to his throat and in that flash it was if her safety was the only thing that mattered.

"Lois, be careful of the ledge!" he cautioned quickly, and immediately felt foolish. "I just - I don't want you to fall, or something." The follow-up hadn't made him feel much better.

Lois watched the awkward display in amusement. "In your dreams, Farmboy." She thought for a moment and then added, "Literally."

"It's just that it's a long way down and -"

She stopped him with a hand. "Hey, I'm not the one with the bad case of acrophobia."

"How did you -"

"You told me," she said. She mimed a phone with her thumb and pinkie and brought it to her ear. "The 3am call."

"Oh," he said. She had told him about the phone call when she walked him back to the farm. He wasn't exactly sure why, but out of every memory that had slipped away from him, he wished for that one back the most. "Sorry. I probably totally annoyed you."

She glanced up at him, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, looking - for the first time since he had met her - almost vulnerable. "Not really."

She turned back to her search and didn't catch the wide smile that split his face.

"Ok - all I'm seeing is a bunch of rocks here."

Clark suddenly became aware of the steady thud of his heart against his chest. His feelings for her were new, and strangely powerful. He felt so comfortable with her by his side, that he could have just stood there forever.

He wondered for a moment if he should just tell her. Walk right over, take a deep breath, look her in the eyes and say ---

"Hey, Smallville?" He looked up to find her holding something in her hand. Short and metallic - A tazer. Lois pushed a button and it sparked in front of her eyes. She smiled wickedly. "One of these things is not like the others."

* * *

Chloe sat in silence as she put it all together. She considered the evidence - the promise, Lana's story, the pictures of the future, all of it - until, finally, she had landed firmly and soundly on one final conclusion.

"I really screwed up, didn't I?"

She stared down at the wedding photo in her hands. Decked in their formal wear, and wrapped up in each other, Lois and Clark looked like two people completely and totally in love. And standing right beside her cousin, Chloe looked genuinely happy for them.

Lana nodded. "Who ever loves, if he do not propose; The right true end of love, he's one that goes; To sea for nothing but to make him sick: Love is a bear-whelp born, if we o're lick Our love, and force it new strange shapes to take, We err, and of a lump a monster make."

"Okay, if you're going to be quoting metaphysical poets the whole time, you can count me out," Chloe threatened. She turned to the other Lana. "You with me?"

Her friend shook her head. "No way. I'm totally impressing myself."

Chloe set the pictures in her hands, and the albums on her lap, aside. "So what do we do now?"

Lana said nothing. Chloe glanced at her. "I don't know," she confessed, with a heavy sigh.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Chloe asked. "You're 'The Guardian'" She made air quotes.

"Yeah, well, believe it or not, there's no operators manual to this thing."

Chloe raked her hands through her hair. "This is such a mess." She looked down at the addlepated stack of pictures - a loose-leaf future - and it took on the literal.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive," the young Lana recited. When Chloe and Lana shot her an identical look, she shrugged. "It's all I got."

Chloe slumped back in her chair, dejectedly. "I thought I was protecting her," she confessed. "I should have known better than to think Lois would ever intentionally hurt me."

"What if you just take it back?" Lana suggested, suddenly. "What if you find Lois and, I don't know, say you thought about it and decided that it wasn't your place to say who she can and can't date."

Chloe looked to the older Lana. "Do you think that will work?"

She was considering this carefully. "It's worth a shot. Right now it's the best idea we've got." And then she asked, "Where is Lois?"

"She's at the Talon, waiting for me." Chloe checked her watch. "Damn, and I'm late."

Lana packed her things back into the duffel bag and slung it over her chest."Well let's go," she said as she headed for the door.

The younger Lana looked on as her older self left the room with the same kind of dramatic flare as when she had entered it.

"Isn't she great?" Lana asked.

Chloe lifted an eyebrow. "Lemme guess, you want to be just like her when you grow up?"

Her friend just smiled and tagged quickly after her future self. Chloe rolled her eyes and then followed in suit.

Lana had finally found her idol.

Herself.

Part 4: Ampersand


	5. Ampersand

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: This is a perspective round-robin! Ok - the big chapter is next – this is a small one to get us there. Thanks to everyone for feedback.

Part 4: Ampersand

"_Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson. You find the present tense, and the past perfect" - Anonymous_

"I still think we should have taken that stun gun with us," Lois said for the fifth time since they had left the gorge. And for the fifth time Clark shook his head.

"It's not a good idea to move anything until we figure this all out," he reminded her as they crossed the street.

"Whatever, CSI," she said. "Did you ever think that maybe being around said stun gun would help jog that elusive memory of yours?"

He had already opened his mouth to protest, when it struck him that she was making a lot of sense. "No," he admitted, lamely. "Maybe you're right."

She opened the front door to the Talon, and threw a dazzling smile over her shoulder. "Of course I'm right. I'm always right. It's one of my many charming qualities."

He placed his hand on the small of her back, and ushered her inside. "It definitely is," he agreed, grinning back.

"There you are."

Chloe had spotted them from across the room and was jogging their way. She looked happy - and almost relieved - to see them.

"Chloe!" Lois practically yelped. Clark noticed her hands tighten at her sides as she launched into a frenzied explanation. "I, uh, we were just...Clark asked me to help him out with something, so we had to, I mean we only went..." She let out a deep sigh and sunk a good 2 inches. "I waited for you."

Chloe just shrugged. "I know. I'm sorry I'm late."

"It's just –" Lois stopped and frowned. "Wait. _You're_ sorry?"

"Yeah. But I'm here now, so why don't we get that coffee?" Chloe hooked her arm. "Relax a bit."

Lois was eying her cousin suspiciously. "Okay, " she said, drawing the two syllables out for all they were worth.

Clark wondered what is was that had made Lois react the way she did. He thought about hanging back and asking her, but decided against it. Instead he followed the girls as they wound their way through the crowd. Chloe directed them to a table towards the back, where Lana sat. As they approached, she waved, by way of a hello. Chloe took the open chair next to her, and Clark let Lois slide into the booth first before taking a seat.

The puffy, red leather cushion hadn't fully sunk beneath his weight before Chloe had pushed money his way.

"Clark, could you go grab us some drinks?"

So much for relaxing. "Sure," he said, easing back up and pocketing the bills.

"I'll have a coffee - black, two sugars. And a cinnamon scone," Chloe rattled off her order.

Lana gestured to the blueberry muffin she was picking at. "I'll just have an iced chai."

"Lois?" Clark placed his hand on her shoulder. He was becoming more and more comfortable with their newfound closeness. It was slipping into second nature.

There was a crooked playfulness in the smile that followed. "You already took care of my order once today, remember?"

He felt himself lean forward. "Yes. But that was a debt. How about I get you a drink now that we're back in the black?" He said it in a low whisper, as if it were their own private joke.

They remained like that for a moment - dueling playful gins - until Lois caught a glimpse of something in her peripheries. Before Clark knew it, her previous smile had slid right off. "Thanks, I'm good," she said, curtly.

He turned to find Chloe's eyes on them, studying their interaction with distinct interest.

* * *

If Lois was going have a drink, it needed to be a little stronger than the coffee shop variety. Unless, of course, there was such thing as a 90 proof Latte.

She watched Clark walk away, and wished she could trade places with him. She was not looking forward to the conversation to come. Maybe if she was lucky, Chloe would just let the whole thing drop and pretend like nothing had --

"We need to talk," Chloe said from across the table.

Right. She was never that lucky.

"Before you say anything, you need to understand that as much as I love you, you aren't the boss of me. I went with Clark because he needed my help."

She paused. Lois was known for her brutal honesty, but she reserved that for the rest of the world - never her cousin. Using it felt decidedly wrong, like she was moving in a direction she never wanted to go. So when she started again, her expression softened, and the kid gloves went back on.

"He's been having these dreams and he thinks they're connected to his memory loss. We went over to Shuster's Gorge to investigate."

Lana choked on her muffin. "Did you find anything?"

Lois' mind flashed back to the stun gun, and the great big nothing that had come from it. "Not really. Just more questions."

"Good," Lana said. Then, as if she had let something slip, quickly corrected, "I mean - um - good luck."

Lois didn't know what that was about, and didn't really care. There was only one reaction that she was concerned with.

She glanced at Chloe. Her eyes were hooded and hard to read.

"Look, it just kind of happened," Lois plunged forward - never a fan of awkward silence - coming as close to an apology as she was ever going to. After all, she hadn't done anything wrong. "But I haven't forgotten our discussion."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about that," Chloe said finally. "I was hoping we _could _forget about the whole promise thing."

Lois hadn't been expecting that. "What?"

Chloe laughed, an edgy, stilted laugh. "Yeah, I was just being stupid - it had been a long couple of days and I was sleep deprived. I've thought about it and if you and Clark ever decided to see each other, I'd be completely okay with that. So can we just pretend I never asked it?"

She studied her cousin carefully. Chloe was nervous; her napkin now shredded into a thousand tiny pieces.

Lois frowned, uneasy. "Sure, Chlo."

Chloe let out a sharp breath. "Great." She clapped her hands together and stood up. "Okay, I'm going to go help Clark with those drinks," she said, brightly.

As Chloe walked towards the counter, Lois wondered just how much sleep she had missed.

* * *

The first thing she felt was relief.

It was like sitting on death row and suddenly being pardoned on the 11th hour. Her neck out of the noose. Her head off the chopping black.

She wouldn't be the villain of this story.

She bounced up to Clark, feeling lighter than she had in days. "Hey!" she greeted him happily. "Thought you could use some help."

He handed the girl behind the counter his money before turning to her and smiling warmly. "Thanks."

She bit her lip and chose her next words carefully. "Lois told me about the whole cave incident. Sorry I wasn't there to help."

Clark shrugged. "It's alright. I don't know if you could have even if you had been."

"Well, if there is anything you need, just tell me okay?"

He considered this for a moment, and snuck a furtive glance Lois' way.

"Actually, can I talk to you about something?"

"Always."

Another glance. "It's about Lois."

"Yeah?" She did her best to sound surprised, although she was pretty sure he wouldn't have noticed if she failed miserably.

"Have you ever known someone, and thought you had them completely figured out and then suddenly you began to see them in a whole new light?" Clark asked.

Chloe looked at her best friend - the alien - and smiled. "Yeah. Something like that."

"She's just different," he told her, with a tone that suggested he couldn't make heads or tails of it. The waitress handed him Chloe's drink and he passed it along to her. "Or maybe I'm the one that's different - if that makes any sense."

Chloe smirked, knowingly. "More than you realize."

"I like being around her," he admitted, clumsily. "It's...comfortable." He turned to the table, where Lois sat fiddling with her cell phone. His smile reached his eyes.

Chloe hated herself for the way that jealousy still smoldered somewhere deep inside her. She had come to terms with the fact that Clark's future was with Lois, but that didn't make it sting any less. "You shouldn't be telling me this, Clark."

He snapped out of his daze and looked at Chloe, guilt registering loudly on his face. "Oh God, Chloe, I'm sorry. You're right, I –"

"No, Clark," she interrupted. She took a deep breath and shook her head. Time to play the martyr. "I meant you should be telling Lois." To her surprise, she didn't need to force the smile that came next. "You guys could be really great together."

He tilted his head to the side. "You think?"

Chloe sipped her coffee. "Let's just say I'd put money on it."

* * *

The present Lois was nothing like her future self, Lana had decided.

The woman who had given her the scroll just days before had been strong and confident. She carried herself with effortless grace that commanded the attention of all around.

It upset Lana to think that now, because of some cosmic screw up, Lois might never get to that place.

Chloe had done her part. It was time she added her own two cents to the cause.

"So..." Lana broke the silence. "You and Clark, huh? That's something I'd like to see."

If looks could kill, Lana would have been dead where she sat. "What's that supposed to mean?" Lois asked, clearly offended.

"Oh! I just meant that they way you guys go at it, I think it'd be funny." That hadn't come out right. "Not funny ha-ha." That sounded worse. Lana sighed. "It was supposed to be a compliment."

Lois shrugged. "Yeah, well, don't hold your breath."

"What are you talking about?"

"If anything ever happened between me and the farm boy, my cousin would never forgive me."

"But she just said -"

"I know what she said. And I know what she meant." Lois looked her dead in the eyes. "I made a promise and I intend to keep it."

"Oh."

Lois pulled her cell phone out of her bag to check the time. "Damn. I'm going to miss my lit class." She stood up. "I need to call someone to take notes for me. I'll be right back."

Lana watched her go.

She had hoped this would be the end of their problems. It had turned out to be just the beginning.


	6. Cassandra

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: I love Chloe. I really, really do. SO this chapter was really hard to write – toss in the fact that I wrote the bulk of this last night, after the premiere, that was full of Chloe-awesomeness - well. Just keep in mind that I struggled. Not to mention Lois...

Part 5: Cassandra

_And I'll just come apart or something_

'_Cause noone will be more empty than I am_

_And I would take it all back if I could_

_But I can't_

_- Letters to Cleo_

"I'll call you when I get back, okay?" Lois wrangled on her light purple blazer and secured her glasses back on the top of her head. The sun hadn't been out since the storm had broken wide the day before, and Clark guessed it was wishful thinking on her part. She pulled Chloe into a tight hug. "You need to come up to campus. We'll wreak a little havoc."

"Definately," Chloe mumbled into her cousin's shoulder.

The two reluctantly separated and Lois went for her bag that hung on one of the Talon's coat hooks.

"And you have to visit us here," Lana encouraged. Clark wasn't surprised when she made the request. Lois was the kind of person who prompted that type of invitation; the kind of person you wanted to be around as much as possible. If she hadn't suggested it, he would have. Although, he suspected, for slightly different motives.

Lois smirked, skeptical as much as flattered. "Sure. The next time I get a yen for the simple life, you guys'll be my first call."

Clark experienced a dizzying moment of double vision. He saw Lois, her hair pulled in a loose ponytail, faded jeans and a pale green tank top. At the same time, and seemingly the same place, he saw a woman. A white blazer, and dark hair. He reached a hand back and steadied himself on the nearest table.

The rickety wooden legs wobbled noisily under his weight, and when the world came back into focus, Lois was looking at him with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Her hand met his forearm in a gesture of worry.

He smiled, gratefully. "Yeah. Fine." He shook it off, and changed the subject. "It's going to be quiet here without you."

"I'm sure you'll manage."

The brass bell chirped as she exited the Talon, and Clark stood doubting that was true.

* * *

It had been a long day.

Lois rubbed the stress knots from her neck as she walked the black asphalt parking lot to her car. She was hardly excited about the three hour drive back to Metropolis, but every mile would bring her that much closer to her dorm room, and the bottle of cinnamon schnapps that was tucked in the recesses of her mini fridge. After the day she had, she needed that drink. Actually, what she really needed was to crack the Statistics book she had been neglecting for the past two days.

But academia was just going to have to take a backseat to her sanity.

Maybe she could take her handle of Goldschlager and her lucky shot-glass and make her way over to the Theta Kappa Epsilon house to score a few bucks drinking the frat rats under the table. Drown her sorrows in Milwaukee Stoplight shots and reimburse the booze at the same time. Two birds, one 50 alcohol by volume content stone.

It was a plan. And that was a start.

"Lois!"

She turned to find a familiar figure jogging towards her. "Clark?"

He stopped short in front of her. It seemed as though his mind hadn't quite caught up with his feet, though, and he stood searching for something to say.

"I just wanted to say thanks - for all your help," he said, finally.

"No problem." She made a move to leave - because she felt that it was not what he really wanted to say - and he blocked her escape.

"Also I was wondering-" Clark stuffed his hands into his pockets. He was avoiding her gaze now, and looked about as nervous as she had ever seen him. "See, my dad got me an old pick-up for my birthday. It's kind of a clunker, but it gets me from here to there. Maybe I could come see you some time in Metropolis. We could go to a movie or something."

He flashed her a hopeful smile that made what she was about to say that much more difficult.

"No."

Clark blinked in surprise. "Oh." He laughed, embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I think I got my wires crossed somewhere." He extended his hand. "Friendship it is."

She glanced down at it for a beat before looking back up at him. "I don't think that's a good idea either."

Clark let his hand drop to his side. "Why not?"

Lois walked around to the driver's side of her red convertible and fiddled with her keys. She could feel his eyes on her over the roof of her car. He was waiting. "Look, I'm not very good at this kind of thing. Relationships, I mean."

"I'm not asking for your hand in marriage, Lois. Just a movie."

"I'm in Metropolis. You're in Smallville," she needlessly reminded him.

He stepped forward and rested his arms on the car's black canvas top. "Trust me when I say that really isn't a problem."

Lois shook her head. "It's better if we don't, Clark. Just...trust me, okay?" she said tiredly.

She could tell he was confused, but to his credit, and her relief, he didn't press it. Instead he took a step back and shrugged sadly. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

She opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. If she had the luxury, she might have taken that moment to think about just what the boy in front of her had to offer. But since she didn't, she stuck her key in the ignition and fired up the engine.

She turned back to him one last time. "I'll see ya ar-," Lois caught herself. "Bye."

Lois drove away from the Talon and from Clark. Within a few minutes she had reached the Smallville town limits. As she cleared the line, the meteor-splashed welcome sign passing by in a blur, Lois had no way of knowing that the world's greatest love story had just went out with a whimper.

* * *

"What do you mean it didn't work?"

This was bad. Very, very bad. Chloe paced a tight line.

"Lois won't break the promise," Lana explained.

"When Lois was seventeen her father warned her to never go near a pack of cigarettes, so she took up smoking. When the senior class uber-jerk complimented her on her brown hair, she stripped it blond." Chloe rolled her eyes. "Figures she'd pick now to start listening to someone."

"Not someone," Lana pointed out. "You."

Chloe collapsed onto the chair with a deep sigh. "Lucky me," she intoned, with a twirl of her finger.

The truth was Chloe wasn't all that surprised that Lois had kept a stronghold on her promise. When it came to Chloe, Lois would do just about anything to ensure her happiness. There was a time when Chloe thought the same could be said for her. Now that the theory had been tested and buckled under the weight, Chloe was left, slumped in a chair, feeling like a complete failure.

At that moment, Clark walked back into the Talon.

Chloe perked. "Clark, what happened?"

He just shrugged. "She turned me down."

"What?" Chloe's last thread of hope snapped. She made a move for her pocket. "Let me call her -"

Clark stopped her with a hand. "No, Chloe. It's ok. We both agreed that it probably wouldn't work out anyway." He smiled sadly. Disappointed, but not destroyed. "I'm going to go help my mom with this week's stock shipment. I'll catch you guys later."

She watched him leave, disappearing behind the double doors of the kitchen. She made sure he was out of sight before she went for her phone.

"What are you doing?" Lana asked.

She covered the receiver with her hand and answered, "This has gone too far. I'm fixing this now." When the other line clicked on and she heard the familiar "Talk to me" she removed her hand and replied, "Lois? It's Chloe. Where are you?"

Lois told her.

"Can you meet me at the gorge? I forgot to – I have something to give you." She thumbed off the phone and dropped it back in her jacket.

"What are you going to do?"

"What I should have done in the first place." Chloe drained her mug of coffee and stood up. "I'm coming clean. I'm telling Lois everything."

Her confession had Lana springing to her feet. "I don't think this is a good idea. We should talk to Lana."

"We tried her way. It didn't work." Chloe tossed the tip for their second round of drinks on the table and began to walk towards the exit.

"Actually, that was my plan," Lana corrected, tagging behind.

Ignoring that, Chloe made a beeline for the door. Her shoulders were squared, her eyes narrowed. "Look, you don't understand. This is all happening because of me. Because of _me_, Lana. So I can't just sit by and hope things work out. I won't."

Lana scooted in front of her, bracing her arms on the doorframe and blockading Chloe's only way out.

"I know how you must be feeling-"

"You really don't," Chloe corrected, hotly.

Lana continued, evenly. "But that doesn't mean you should just rush into this."

Chloe was sure her friend was wrong. She knew the longer this went on, the longer they allowed everyone to amble down the wrong pathway, the harder it would be to correct. It wouldn't be long until the damage was irreparable - if it wasn't already.

She wasn't about to have that hanging over her head, too.

Chloe grabbed Lana's arm and yanked it towards her. Her hand tightened around her wrist, forcing Lana to look at her - regard her deadly serious disposition and listen carefully the words she was about to say.

"Either you're with me or against me. Pick a side," she said. "But in the meantime, get out of my way."

* * *

Chloe stood beside Lois on the edge of the cliff, watching her cousin peer over.

"I don't get the allure of a big hole." Lois kicked a nearby rock and watched it thunk its way down into the canyon below. "This Smallville's newest hot spot? Miles of corn losing its appeal?"

"Something like that," Chloe said.

Never one to indulge in chit chat - especially of the idle variety - Lois crossed her arms and got down to business.

"Well, I'm here. So what did you want to give me?"

Chloe swallowed. "The truth."

Lois' eyebrows lifted in mild surprise. "Okay. I'm listening."

Chloe took a deep breath. "Before I start, I need you to promise me that you'll listen to everything I'm about to tell you. And that no matter how ridiculous it sounds, you'll hear me out."

A specter of a smile crossed Lois' lips. "Promise? Seems like the word of the day."

Chloe grew immediately remorseful. "Yeah... I'm sorry -"

"It's ok, Chlo."

Chloe shook her head. "That's the thing. It really isn't," she admitted, miserably. That familiar feeling of nausea churned her stomach.

Guilt was the watchword.

"There's a reason I asked you to never get involved with Clark. It has nothing to do with lack of sleep or hypotheticals or anything like that. It has to do with the reason I called you the other night."

She nervously wrung her hands and continued, "I saw something that night, Lois," Chloe confessed. "I saw you. In Clark's loft."

Lois shook her head. "That's impossible. I was at school. You know, the one three hours away."

"That's because it wasn't you. It was you from the future," Chloe explained, and got the 'you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me' look from Lois she expected. But once again true to her promise, Lois stayed silent and allowed Chloe to continue. "You used some kind of portal to travel back in time to save Clark from a man who was trying to kill him. And you did that because, in the future, you're his wife."

Lois said nothing. In the middle-of-nowhere silence, Chloe could hear her own pulse in her ears. As each second ticked passed Chloe wished Lois would say something, anything...

"Are you on drugs?"

Except maybe that.

"What? No!" Chloe took a fraction of a second to look insulted before plowing on, "Look, Lois. I messed up. Lana and Clark found you in the caves and brought you back to the loft. When I stopped by the farm, I overhead the whole thing. I was jealous - you worked at the Daily Planet, you were married to Clark – you had my life!" Chloe stopped and evened out her voice. "I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm just trying to explain why I did what I did."

Lois considered this. "So you made me promise to never see Clark."

Chloe nodded. "I thought I could change the future, and I did. For the worse. Things are bad now, Lois, because of me. I thought I could fix things - take back the promise and everything would be okay - but you had to be so damn loyal –"

"I love you, Chlo." She said it so simply, that Chloe almost lost it right then and there. Hot tears began to cloud her vision.

"I know," she said, her voice thick with emotion. And then, because it was almost too much to hope for, Chloe asked, "So you believe me?"

"No."

Chloe's last bit of resolve crumbled. "But it's all true."

"Chloe," her cousin intoned. Lois looked at her strangely, as if trying to pinpoint the exact moment she had gone stark raving mad. God, maybe she _was_ crazy. Time travel? Scrolls?

No. It was the truth. She had to show her.

Chloe stumbled, frantically. "You don't have to take my word for it. You can ask them." She spun around and shouted, "I know you're there! Just come out. I told her everything!"

After a moment, Lana emerged from the woods that flanked the gorge. And then, on her heels, came the older Lana.

Chloe looked at her cousin, who was having a very hard time digesting the scene before her. Lois' face changed into a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"What the hell?"

Chloe didn't bother with introductions, it was fairly obvious who all the parties were. Instead she ran over to the younger Lana, grabbed her bag and pulled out the evidence she knew would be there.

"This is the scroll of Templar," Chloe rushed the explanation. She marched up to Lois who was still gawking, open-mouthed at the double-vision in front of her. "It allowed you to come back to our time to save Clark. And it let Lana do the same thing." Chloe took a moment to let this sink in. "That's why Clark was having dreams about the gorge, Lois. He was here with you. This is where you found the man who was trying to kill Clark. You jammed his gut with a stun gun and he threw you off this cliff."

She shoved the paper into Lois' hands and forced her to read. Not that her cousin could have deciphered the scratchy symbols, but she hoped that its mere presence, the fact that it was something Lois could see and feel, would be enough to make Lois believe her.

"So you see? This is all real. You need to give Clark a chance." Chloe looked to her big cousin. "Please," she said in a desperate whisper.

Lois studied the paper in her hands. Chloe watched, heart in her throat, as she ran her fingers along the markings. Thumbed the fraying edges. And when she was done, she looked up, cleared her throat of her own welling emotions and said,

"No."

"What?"

"I said no," she repeated, this time with venom. She cut Chloe with her eyes. "You think you can just come here with the Doublemint twins, tell me the future and then expect me to follow along? Live my life like some kind of paint by numbers - any big questions, check the time line? It's Monday, September 26, 2008. What am I supposed to have for breakfast today?"

"But..but you have to! If you don't the future will be destroyed!"

"It already is, Chloe!" Lois countered. She turned to the older Lana. "Future Girl, is this how Clark and I got together in your world? With teary apologies on a cliff?"

Lana looked at Chloe; a sad, miserable look. She didn't need to hear the answer, she knew. "No."

"See? It's already different. You messed up, Chlo. And this time I can't help you." Lois chose to make that her exit line, and spun to leave.

"Wait!" Chloe's hand shot out and caught Lois' arm.

"Let go of me, Chloe," Lois snapped, jerking it back.

The next part was a blur.

Something flashed at Lois' feet - small and metallic. It rolled beneath her heel, kicking her off balance.

If there had been time, Chloe would have screamed. Instead, her knee-jerk reaction was to lunge for her cousin, catching her hand before it cleared the ledge. The force, however, pulled Chloe right along with her over the lip of the cliff.

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the fall, but it never came. Instead she felt a sharp jolt, and she was soon hanging - one hand holding Lois' and the other being held by the future Lana. She couldn't tell what the older woman was clinging to for support, but whatever it was, she had it in a vice grip.

Chloe looked down to find Lois wriggling for a better hand-hold. Just beneath her, a familiar piece of paper fluttered toward the water below.

"The scroll!" Chloe yelled.

"Forget it!" Lana said. When Chloe looked back up, she saw that Lana now wore a fresh cut on her face. The gash sliced chin to cheek, across her lips. Blood dripped down, spattering their human chain in crimson.

Somewhere above all of this, Chloe heard the younger Lana screaming for Clark. She would have too, if her focus wasn't being pulled in a million different directions. Like to her throbbing shoulder, that felt like it was being slowly negotiated from the socket.

Or to Lois, who dangled perilously below her. "Chloe, hold on," she instructed. Her voice was dull and calm, no doubt an effort to keep Chloe from panicking further.

"I'm sorry, Lois," Chloe cried freely now, her whole body heaving with sobs. She felt her grip on her cousin slipping. "I'm so sorry for everything."

"Hold on," Lois repeated, fiercely. She had hazzarded a look down and her eyes were now wet with fear. "Chloe," she begged.

Chloe had always heard that moments before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. She learned that the same truth applied to when you held someone else's life in your hands.

She saw family holidays - birthdays, reunions. Time elapsing. Games of tag. Late night phone calls. Secrets and confessions. In her mind, they were 7 - swinging on a swing set in Centennial Park.

"_This is too high," a scared Chloe admits, but pumps harder to keep up with her big cousin._

"_Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen to you," Lois assures her._

_She's getting higher. "How do you know?"_

_On the downswing, Lois catches her eyes. "Because I'd never let it."_

The memories poured over her mind like a flash flood.

And then, her fingers slipped.

Clark Kent eventually came. But for the first time since they had met, Chloe's best friend was a second too late.

END of Part One

Part Two : Destinations.

Chapter 1 : Requiem


	7. Requiem

1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: Ugh - I just wanted this chapter over with. Two more and an epilogue to go.

Part 6: Requiem

_Why you blue, why you blue  
Did she bring you out here too  
Wait and see, wait and see  
The tide might bring you here to me _

"Hey, how's the arm?"

Lois waved her sling. "Fractured in three places. But I had 100 milligrams of codeine with my cereal as part of a well-balanced breakfast and now it's feeling fine."

"100 milligrams?" Chloe echoed, incredulously.

"I assumed my physician's recommended dosage was merely a jumping off point," Lois said with a smirk.

Chloe just laughed. "You would."

Lois kicked out the chair across from her, and motioned for Chloe to take a seat - which looked pretty ridiculous considering her current bandaged state. Someone exited the Talon, and a gust of cold wind snuck through the opened door. Chloe shivered and opted to leave her jacket on.

"I ordered us some drinks. They should be here soon," Lois said. Her concentration was buried in the puzzles section of the Daily Planet. Her left hand - her good hand - twirled a pen. "What time is it?"

Chloe tipped her wrist to find that the LCD lights of her digital watch were on the fritz. In place of actual numbers was a jumble of black dashes. "I guess my Timex took a lickin' and failed to keep on tickin'." She shook it out and checked again. "Damn. I really liked this watch, too. Think I can fix it?"

Lois scratched something down on her crossword. "Some things are meant to stay broken."

Chloe stared at her cousin curiously. What exactly was that supposed to mean?

"Atropos' charge. 5 letters." Lois looked up and Chloe and frowned. "What's an atropos?"

Chloe shrugged. "Beats me." It sounded Greek, but she kept the thought to herself. It wouldn't be much help anyway.

The waitress came with their order.

"Here," Lois said, and slid one of the mugs her cousin's way.

"Thanks."

Chloe took a sip, and a tangy, metallic taste assaulted her tongue. Warm and viscous. She struggled to cough up the small amount that hadn't already slipped down her throat.

"Wha - what is this?" she choked. She wiped her chin and her fingers came back wet with blood.

Lois tilted her head, amused. "You don't like it? I thought you would." She slowly and neatly folded her paper and set it aside. And then casually added, "It's mine."

Chloe grabbed some napkins and frantically scrubbed her hands. They wouldn't come clean. "Why did you do this?"

Lois settled back in her chair and sipped her coffee. "Because you killed me, Chloe."

Chloe's eyes flew open. She sat for a moment in the darkness of her room, trying to slow her breathing. She had hoped to make it through that one night without another panic attack. Tomorrow was a big day.

Her hand snaked out for the orange pill bottle on her night stand.

* * *

Chloe sprinted through the Metropolis Cemetery, her black dress hitched to her knees and her heels in her hands. In the distance she saw the funeral procession - a parade of black that wound its way through the rows of gravestones to a freshly dug burial plot near the cemetery's center. Chloe scaled her sprint back to a slower, more respectful speed as she entered the crowd.

The storm clouds had thinned, and the sun was beginning to break through the dull sky. It looked like a fresh, new beginning on a day that was nothing but an end.

Chloe braced herself on a nearby tree and started slipping her shoes back on. As she scanned the solemn faces of family and friends, her eyes soon landed on Lana. Her friend had noticed her final arrival - along with countless others, Chloe assumed - and was weaving through the crowd.

"Where have you been? I've been calling your cell phone for hours."

Chloe secured the second strap behind her ankle. "I overslept," she mumbled, miserably. She knew that anyone looking at her would find that hard to believe. The dark, sunken eyes. Her ashen complexion. For Chloe, sleep appeared to be a distant wish. And it had been, until the pills...

As if reading her mind, Lana asked, "Are you still taking that Valium? Because the doctor said-"

"I'm not," Chloe lied, because it was easier than the truth. Always seemed to be.

For the first time Chloe began to notice the growing attention she was receiving from members of the funeral party. She unconsciously straightened out her appearance as she ducked the disapproving gazes and tuned out the whispers.

"You missed the service," Lana supplied, as if their reaction required an explanation.

Chloe grinned - small and humorless. "I guess that makes Lois and I even. She missed mine, too." She watched as the cream-colored casket was placed gingerly onto the struts, six feet above its final resting place. "I was supposed to give the eulogy."

Lana looked across the way, to the edge of the plot. "Lucy gave it instead." The young girl looked shattered. Tears slipped freely down her cheeks as she gripped the General's hand tightly for support. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Chloe's eyes trailed along the long line of mourners. Some faces she recognized. Other she didn't. And then...

"How is he?" Chloe asked as she held her eyes on the stooping figure of Clark Kent. He stood alone, isolated from the rest. Misery was etched into his features.

Lana shook her head. "I'm not sure. I talked to Mrs. Kent this morning. She said he really hasn't left the loft since it happened." She frowned. "I think he blames himself for her death."

"That's ridiculous," Chloe scoffed. "Clark's not responsible."

"No, he's not," Lana agreed. And then she placed a hand on her shoulder. "And you aren't either."

Chloe turned back to the grave, where the priest bellowed his sermon. "In reality noone can preach our funeral," he heralded, in a deep, fortissimo voice. "We preach our own funerals while we live."

She closed her eyes, and set her mind's eye to Lois. They had shared so much together, but it hurt to think back on any of it. All of her happy memories were now tainted with guilt.

The service ended, and the casket was lowered into the ground. Some lingered to offer condolences, and say their final goodbyes.

And then Chloe was alone.

She stood silently; eyes glued to the hole, feet glued to the ground. She still hadn't found the right words.

As if there were any to find.

She moved cautiously to the grave and stared down at the metal casket lid. Overwhelmed, she found herself stumbling backwards. Something deep inside of her needed that space

From a safer distance, she tried again. "Hey, Lois. It's me. Chloe." As soon as she had said it, she felt stupid. Lois would laugh at her. No, she thought, her eyes filling with tears. Lois would never laugh again. "Um, I'm not really sure what to say. 'I'm sorry' stopped being enough a long time ago. Not that it was ever enough... not really." She felt her composure splintering. It was a labor to get the words out. Her chin began to quiver as she plowed on,

"I have a confession to make. I read your articles everyday. They're really good, Lois. Amazing, actually. I think some of them won Kerths. Anyway, Lana gave them to me - and some pictures - she said it would help me to remember you, but how was I ever supposed to forget?" She shook her head and choked back her last tears.

"You were my best friend, Lois. You took care of me - you protected me whenever the world became a scary place. Well, now it's my turn.'" Her fists balled tightly at her sides. " I'm going to fix this Lois. I swear to you," she said firmly. "I will do everything it takes to make things right again. Even if it kills me. Even if I have to do it alone."

"You're not alone."

Chloe whirled around to find, "Clark."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. In his hand he held a single white lily. "I want you to know that I understand how hard it must be for you to lose your cousin. How much you must be hurting right now."

"What-"

"I want you to understand that, Chloe."

Chloe nodded. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "I...I do."

"Good." He turned and moved away until he was at the edge of Lois' grave. "Because I don't want there to be any misunderstanding when I tell you that we are no longer friends."

Her heart idled for one long, painful moment. "You aren't serious."

_Ashes to ashes. _

He kept his back to her. "I loved her and you took that away from me. You took my wife away from me."

Shock tore through her body, as though she'd been plunged into ice water. He had just called Lois his wife. That meant --

"I remember," he told her as he dropped the flower onto the casket. "Everything."

_Dust to dust._


	8. Minus

1

Notes: It's been brought to my attention that some people have been reading this without reading Future Tense first – I would advise against that. Honestly, this must be making zero sense for ya'll.

Part 7: Minus

_I wear this crown of thorns  
upon my liar's chair  
full of broken thoughts  
I cannot repair  
beneath the stains of time  
the feelings disappear  
you are someone else  
I am still right here _

what have I become?  
my sweetest friend  
everyone I know  
goes away in the end  
and you could have it all  
my empire of dirt

I will let you down  
I will make you hurt

_2006 - In a Future that No Longer Existed_

When Chloe unlocked the door to her apartment and walked inside she half expected them to be in the throes of passion right then and there. Stripped down to various stages of undress and ravaging each other on a bed. Preferably not hers.

Instead she found Lois, perched on the edge of the livingroom couch, knees bobbing anxiously,

"Where have you been?" she asked, her voice an octave above frantic. She was still in her blood red dress - a low-cut little number she had scoured Metropolis' garment district to find - but had traded the matching cardigan for a Met U hoodie. The loose curls that had taken Lois an hour to set with the hair drier were now thrown up in a ponytail. Her thin black heels, the ones Chloe lent her, clacked noisily on the hardwood floor.

Chloe showed her the camera that hung around her neck. "I had to take some night shots of Hobb's Bay for my article."

"That shouldn't have taken more than an hour."

Chloe shrugged. "I took the long way home. I figured you and Clark would like a little privacy while you two, you know, got it on."

Lois was halfway to a blush before she recovered with an eyeroll. "Please, it was our first date," she argued, unconvincingly.

"Right. After a year of pent up sexual tension. I'm surprised you two left the apartment at all. I thought you'd throw on that star spangled stripper outfit you keep in the back of your closet and make him salute the flag all night long," she finished with an eyebrow waggle, ducking the pillow that came sailing in her direction.

"You have a dirty mind, little cous."

Chloe just laughed and set her keys down on the side table, which she couldn't help but notice had been cleared of its usual clutter. In fact, the whole apartment looked spotless.

She took inventory as she made her way to the kitchen, tripping on the chord to a vacuum that hadn't seen the light of day since they'd moved into the place three months before. Not on Lois' watch, anyway.

Judging from her cousin's sudden stockpile of energy, it would seem that there had, indeed, been no ravaging that night. In which case, there would need to be liquor.

She grabbed the jug of Carlos Rossi and two glasses from the cabinet and joined her cousin back in the living room. Lois had kicked off her shoes, removed all of the items from the coffee table and begun ...sorting laundry?

Chloe plopped down next to her, and poured the wine. She glanced at her cousin, who was wound tighter than she had ever seen her, and then topped off Lois' glass.

"So?" Chloe prodded, placing her drink down in front of her.

Lois dutifully avoided eye contact as she sorted her whites. "What?"

"I want details." Chloe settled back into the cushions, preparing herself for what would no doubt be one hell of a narrative. After years of excruciating subtext, there would finally, mercifully be _actual_ text. "Spill."

Lois shrugged. "There's nothing to tell. He picked me up, we went to dinner and a movie, he dropped me off. End of story."

Chloe pouted. "That's not a story, Lois. That's barely a caption." She nudged her leg. "Come on. You have to give me something."

Lois sloshed her wine around and then downed it in one gulp. "I had a nice time."

Chloe smiled. "I'm glad."

Lois shook her head. "No, I mean I had a_ really_ nice time," she confessed, her cheeks pinking. She set her glass down and her laundry aside, and turned to her cousin. "It wasn't the funniest or the wildest -"

"Uh, don't hurt yourself, Lois."

"But it just seemed to... work." A demure smile tugged at her lips. "It was really nice."

An awkward beat elapsed. Lois grabbed her laundry basket.

"I'm going to do some laundry."

Chiloe looked at her watch and frowned. "It's almost midnight."

Lois shrugged. "No lines."

At the door, she turned back.

"Is this weird?" she asked.

"Weird?"

"I mean, we've known each other for years, most of which was spent in mortal combat. And now we're dating? Do feelings really change like that?"

Chloe gave her a comforting smile. "It's okay that you like him, Lois."

Lois sighed. "I really do," she admitted.

Chloe watched her cousin leave, counted out the ten steps it would take her to be out of earshot and then threw a look over her shoulder to the open window.

"Olly Olly oxen free," she called out, before springing up and jogging over. She braced her hands on the sill and leaned outside.

She smirked at the boy who hovered back-flat against the brownstone of their apartment, thirty-odd feet off the ground.

"You can come in now, Romeo," she teased, side-stepping to let him in.

He crouched through the window and into the livingroom. "How did you know I was out here?" he asked as his feet hit the ground.

"A hunch," she said. "I figured you'd take advantage of our alley-adjacent apartment for a post date wrap-up."

A wide smile spread across his face, reaching his eyes. "She likes me," he said.

Chloe laughed and thwapped his chest. "Of course she does, you big lunkhead. She went out with you."

"Only because you asked her to," Clark pointed out.

Chloe scoffed. "Please. Have you looked at yourself? Not exactly a hard sell." She moved back to the couch and offered him some wine. He declined.

"We both know that Lois would have never agreed unless you pushed the subject."

"You're right. You owe me big," she playfully agreed. "But just how big? Shopping spree? You know, Paris is nice this time of year. Why don't you scoop me up in those big, manly arms of yours and -"

"Chlo-e."

She put her hands up in submission. "Fine. You and Lois can name your first born after me and we'll be square."

Clark scratched the back of his head, sheepishly. "I think it's a little early for a baby shower. I mean we haven't even kissed yet."

Chloe's eyes went wide. She hadn't expected that one. "You didn't kiss her?"

Clark winced in embarrassment. "I was waiting for the perfect moment."

"And it never came?"

"Oh, no it came - seven times. I just chickened out."

Chloe shook her head, knowingly. Suddenly the Clean Sweep act began to make a world of sense. "No wonder Lois looked wired for sound," she said. "Jeez Louise, Clark. Throw her a bone." She raised an eyebrow. "But once again, not on my bed."

He shot her a look.

Chloe thoughtfully tapped her chin. "On second thought, maybe you could hold out for another week, and I could get Lois to tackle the dingy grout in the bathroom."

Clark was about to respond when the door swung open and Lois burst in, laundry basket still braced on her hip.

"Hey, Chlo. Do you have any quarters? The change machine is broken –" She saw Clark and stuttered to a halt.

"Hey," he lamely greeted.

"Hey."

Chloe bit back her own 'hey'. This seemed like a couple's activity.

"I, um. You forgot this." He produced a sweater from behind his back that Chloe was positive he didn't have when he came in. She suspected that, had she not blinked, she may have witnessed a split-second of Clark-less-ness in the spot where he stood.

Lois dropped the sweater into her basket. "Thanks."

The two regarded each other, nervously.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go to lunch tomorrow. I mean, if you don't have class."

"No. I mean, lunch sounds good."

Clark let out a quick breath of relief, and smiled. And because they seemed to be doing everything in pairs that night, she did too.

"Great."

"Great."

Chloe watched all this with her head tipped slightly on one side, saying nothing.

For a while she had thought that Lois and Clark would be a good match. They cared about each other, and any time clocked together was never boring. But standing there, watching her two normally intelligent, articulate best friends rendered completely stupid and tongue-tied in each other's presence, she really believed she was seeing something special.

"Well." Clark made an awkward gesture towards the doors. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

He looked at Chloe, who made a pushing motion with her hands. He swallowed nervously and then took her advice. He grabbed Lois' waist and pulled her in for their first, real kiss. Her cousin let out a small squeak of surprise, before dropping her laundry and melting into his embrace.

Eventually, she pulled back, stunned and gasping for air. He reluctantly let her go and went for the door.

"Bye, Chloe."

Chloe smirked and waved. "Bye, Clark."

He turned back to Lois and dropped another quick kiss on her lips. "Bye."

It took a minute, but Lois finally found her voice again. "Yeah, bye." She slowly closed the door behind him, and rested her head against the jamb. A wide, contented smile stretched across her face.

"I see it, but I don't quite believe it. My cousin, Lois Lane, finally swept off her feet."

Chloe hefted her camera and looked through the eyepiece.

"This is a Kodak moment."

Click.

* * *

_The Present. _

Chloe traced her fingers along the edge of the photo.

In it, a Lois that no long longer existed looked as happy as Chloe had ever seen her. Not simply living, but alive.

It had been a few hours since the funeral and Clark's dissolution of their friendship.

After her short goodbye to Lois, it had begun to rain. Chloe had sprinted across the cemetery grounds, icy water soaking her to the skin. When she got to the car, Lana stood waiting under an umbrella. Her dark nylons were spattered with mud at the ankles, but for the most part she was enviably dry.

When they arrived at Lana's apartment, her friend had offered her the bathroom first. Chloe peeled off the drenched layers and Lana brought her one of her fluffier terrycloth robes.

A hot shower later and her teeth still chattered.

Chloe stepped back from the photo and admired the massive montage it belonged to. Rows and rows of pictures, neatly pinned with thumbtacks and arranged chronologically stretched across the back wall of the apartment. Hundred of images, not just of Lois, but an entire world. Each with the mark of the Guardian. Each of a scene that would never come to be.

The wall of would-have-been.

The older Lana had said that it made her feel more at home when she was surrounded by familiar things. Even if she would never see them again, it was a comfort to know that they had once been there.

Chloe stared at the picture of Lois and couldn't for the life of her see how constant reminders were comforting.

A tear slipped down Chloe's cheek. She could barely bare to remember her.

The older Lana returned from the kitchen and handed her a warm cup of Darjeeling. Chloe took a sip and felt her cold limbs begin to tingle to life.

"So Clark found you?"

Lana sipped her tea. On her lip she wore a fresh scar - a parting gift from her rescue on the cliff.

"He was so busy with Lois at the bottom of the gully, I thought I had slipped out undetected," she recounted. "I took the woods to the road and then double backed to the apartment. An hour later he was at the front door."

"So you just told him everything?"

"All of his memories from when Lois came back from the future had returned. They had been threatening to surface for a while - we knew this. Seeing Lois fall off the cliff must have opened the floodgates." She motioned to the wedding photo that held a spot towards the center of the wall. "He had a right to know."

The younger Lana emerged from the bathroom, toweling her hair dry. "We should have told him sooner."

The older Lana shook her head. "It was never supposed to go this far." She sighed. "But now without the aid of either scroll, we aren't exactly in the position to sweep things under the rug."

That had been a crushing blow. The realization that when the younger Lana's scroll had fallen into the water, it had erased the other scroll from existence. Their only way of correcting this mess, literally disappeared before their eyes.

Chloe studied her hands.

"He said we're not friends anymore."

The older woman gently stroked her back - an almost motherly gesture. "He just needs time."

"I don't know," the younger Lana piped up. When the other two turned to her, she looked at them regretfully. "Not to be the wet blanket, but he just lost the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. Not only that, but he remembers exactly how it should be, and knows that he won't get to experience any of it."

She shook her head.

"How do you come back from that?"

On the wall, Lois smiled brightly at her from a million different directions. "You don't," Chloe whispered, miserably.

Clark was her best friend.

Lois was alive.

Everything good in her life was past tense now.

* * *

_2012_

She watched from the doorway as he fumbled with his tie.

"Here, let me."

She walked up and pulled the offending muddle of black silk from his neck. The walls of the old church were paper thin and the resonant notes of the pipe organ floated into the room.

He moved his hands to give her access as she started again. "Thanks. I never could figure these things out."

Chloe laughed. "Explain to me again how you can leap tall buildings with a single bound, but a necktie does you in."

"We all have our weaknesses," Clark said with a smile.

She finished off the knot and pulled it tight. "There you go." Clark turned back to the mirror and inspected the job with satisfaction.

Chloe put another check on her mental tally. Call the florists who were already twenty minutes late with the white lilies, and chew them out accordingly. Prevent Lucy from making good on her promise to cut her bridesmaid dress to the upper thigh. Make sure that in his bride-to-be's absence, Clark Kent looked presentable.

Check. Check. Double check.

With his own appearance under control, Clark took a moment to take her in for the first time. "You look beautiful."

She blushed appropriately, and smoothed the satiny fabric of her dress - a lavender A-line gown, with a waterfall draped back that pooled at her feet.

"Thanks. Well, after you lost your battle royale with Lois about my role in the wedding, she drove me right to the boutique. Not too bad. I knew I could count on Lois to avoid taffeta at all costs. That prom incident left her permanently scarred."

Clark frowned. "I still think you should have been my best man..err...woman. Person?"

"You know Lois was never going to let that happen. And as much as I enjoyed tug-of-Chloe, it was nice to have the decision made. Besides, Bruce looks dashing in his tux." She tugged at a lapel. "Much like you, Mr. Kent."

He squared his shoulders. Adjusted his cuffs. "Not too bad, huh?"

"I can't believe you're getting married. I never thought I'd see the day," she told him. "Or rather I did, but it was to a very different LL."

Clark shook his head. "That seems like a lifetime ago. I can't for the life of me remember what it feels like to not love Lois."

"Yeah, well you're a ring ceremony away from never having to."

He smiled and nodded and she placed a good luck kiss on his cheek.

"I have to attend to my maid-of-honor-ly duties. Lois should be mid breakdown by now," she explained as she began to leave.

"Chloe?"

She stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"After Lana and I broke up, the Lois thing happened pretty quickly. You and I never really got to talk about... I know that, at one point, there were feelings..." he trailed off, awkwardly. "Maybe if Lois had never entered the picture, you and I might have -"

"Clark," she stopped him. "It's okay."

He stepped forward and took her hand. "I know. I guess what I'm trying to say is that for as long as I can remember, you've been by my side. You got me through my teenage years, and the crazy college ones. You saw me at my worst and but never stopped looking at the good. I want to tell you that I'm thankful for every day you're around. And that I love you."

Chloe choked back tears. The wedding hadn't even started, and he was going to make her a wreck. She took a deep breath and looked right into his eyes. "In my whole life I've never met anyone quite like you, Clark. You deserve someone amazing. And she's it." Chloe paused. "You're my best friend," she said, finally. "And in an hour's time, you'll be family."

He pulled her into a warm hug.

"You made all of this happen, Chloe," Clark whispered and kissed the top of her head. "I'll never forget that."

She closed her eyes and held on tightly. "I know."

And she did.

* * *

_The Present. _

He was right where she knew he'd be.

It wasn't reassuring in the way that predictability could be. Even then, when her world was spinning and she'd give anything for stability.

When she walked the long stairway of the loft and found Clark on the floor, still in his now-wrinkled funeral suit from the day before, Chloe felt her bravery falter and regret begin to settle in its place. It had taken her all night to muster the courage to face him after what he had said to her, and she was beginning to wonder how she had ever managed to convince herself that this had been a good idea.

There was only a room's length between them, but it might as well have been a continent. He kept his back to her, his attention focused intently on something else. She moved closer and watched him perk up slightly, although she suspected he had been well aware of her arrival before she had even entered the barn.

"I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to see you again." His voice was low and cracked at the edges as if he hadn't used it for days.

Chloe hazarded a step forward. "I'm not here for forgiveness or even to mend fences. I don't deserve it." Her hands twisted in front of her. "This isn't about us, Clark. It's about Lois. We need to find a way to bring her back. And given your special abilities -- "

He laughed sharply. Cruelly. "After all these years, how does it feel to finally know my secret?"

She bristled. "Don't act like this is some kind of victory on my part. That little piece of information cost me my cousin - a trade I was never willing to make."

Clark said nothing.

"You don't think I wish that this had gone differently?" Chloe asked, hotly. "That you had trusted me enough to tell me yourself?"

"Could I?"

Chloe blinked in disbelief. "You know me better than to think that I would ever betray you."

He sat silently, considering it for a moment before finally asking, "I wonder if Lois thought the same thing about you."

Out of everything he could have said to her, he had managed to find the one thing that hurt the most. But as much as she wanted to hate him for it, she felt like she had deserved worse.

Chloe sighed and took a minute to remind herself why she had gone to see him in the first place. "I didn't come here looking for a fight," she told him. "I want to fix this. I want to make things right again."

"I think you've done enough, Chloe."

She began to bridge the gap between them. "Clark, you -" Chloe froze as she finally caught sight of what was in front of him. She felt her heart jackhammer against her chest as she looked at the hundreds of pictures of Lois laid out around him. Bright, glossy images of a love he would never get to experience.

A life he had been cheated of.

Chloe suddenly realized that she had been holding on to small, foolish sense of hope that Clark could once again save the day. But that scene told her everything she needed to know and hope died an ugly death at the hands of the truth.

He couldn't be her hero anymore.

Clark's eyes met hers finally - his wreck of a face, tired and drawn was the picture of anguish.

"You made all of this happen, Chloe. I'll never forget that."

She nodded sadly. "I know."

And she did.


	9. Mobius

One chapter to go (after this).

Part 9: Mobius

"Happy love has no history" - DeRougemont

Jonathan Kent wasn't thirsty. But when his wife pulled the old copper kettle off the stove and poured them each a cup of tea, he stirred in a spoonful of honey and drank it just the same.

"It isn't right, Martha," he said, finally. "And I think it's time we stop pretending that it is."

Martha eyed him wearily over the rim of her cup, as if trying to decide whether or not he had really just broken their unspoken agreement. She set her tea down and reached for his hand across the kitchen table.

"He just needs time," she assured him, rubbing her thumb along his palm.

Jonathan shook his head. "It's been a week. Seven days and he hasn't moved from that spot."

"He's grieving."

"I understand that. Lois' death was a shock for us all." He paused briefly and cast a look out the window towards the barn. The loft's light burned on in the darkness. "I ran into Gabe Sullivan down at Jacob's Hardware and even Chloe's gone back to school. Lois was her cousin. She was barely an acquaintance to our son."

Martha's reassuring smile faltered into something tighter. More serious. "I think she may have been more than that," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Clark did have her over the night we were visiting your sister."

Jonathan nodded, remembering the phone call that had revealed the unexpected fact. "To help with her history report," he said. His wife gave him that look, the one that told him he had flown right past the obvious. He frowned. "There was no history report?"

"When I asked Lois about it the next day she looked at me like I had lost my mind. She must have forgotten the story she and Clark had cooked up."

"So you think something may have been going on with those two?"

Martha shrugged. "It's possible."

A line twitched between his eyebrows as he considered this new piece of information. "There's something else. Something he's not telling us."

Martha looked at him, surprised. "Clark would never keep anything from us," she said.

"He's right."

The two turned to find their son in the doorway. Exhausted and broken. A distant echo of his former self.

"There's something that you need to know."

* * *

It helped to keep moving.

When she was actively doing, she got a reprieve from thinking. It was thinking that led to self doubt and guilt. It was thinking that reminded her that she was the reason her cousin was no longer around. And it was thinking that made her tired and anxious, and worst of all, useless.

She had decided, finally, that she was too strong for that.

Chloe threw her school bag on the couch and went to her room. She dropped to her knees and fished out the blue gingham nesting box from under her bed. Cracking the lid, she pulled out the Daily Planet issue that rested on top of the heap.

It was the June 25th edition. Lois' headline had nabbed the coveted front page; _Financier Tied To Attempt on Governor's Life_. Shortly after Lana had given her some of Lois' old articles, Chloe had fallen in love with each and every one. But that one - well, that one was her favorite.

It wasn't so much the article itself that struck a chord, but the story behind it.

It was the height of the Metropolis gubernatorial race and Lois had received a tip that went sour, leading her source to be exposed and murdered. The Planet was sued for libel and Lois lost her job. Lana said that in all the years she had known her, she had never seen Lois so lost. She was missing in action for days, sending the rest of them into a frenzy. Clark was tearing his hair out. Chloe had even gone to the police.

And then it happened.

She reappeared, suddenly, at Clark's apartment, beaming from ear to ear.

What had changed? In Lois' words;

She had stopped acting like a victim, and started thinking like a reporter.

Lana had told Chloe that whenever Lois would talk about what it meant to be a reporter, she waxed poetic on something she reverently referred to as 'The click' - That moment when all of the pieces of the puzzle came together and she could finally see the big picture. It was sort of a zen approach to Journalism, something that seemed strange for a type A like Lois. But she held true to the belief, and it became her mantra.

The answer was always right there, but sometimes it had to find you.

Needless to say, Lois solved the case, saved the day, and recounted the entire experience in a flawlessly written expose.

Remembering her cousin made Chloe's chest hurt, but it was the thing that kept her going.

She reached in the box and pulled out the photocopied notes from Lana's study of the scroll of Templar. Each source was color coded and dog-eared from hours of research. Despite her meticulous analysis, however, the solution still seemed a million miles away.

She blew the bangs from her eyes, spread out her papers and once again began her search for the answer. She just hoped that it had started its search for her.

* * *

"I can't look at this."

Clark watched as his mother set the picture down and fought to maintain her composure. He appreciated the brave face she was keeping up for his sake, but part of him wanted to tell her it was okay to let go - that she had lost a daughter. A larger part, however, was glad that she didn't know the full extent of her loss and would be spared his kind of pain.

He reached across the table and took the photo from her. He felt his heart idle as he stared at the wedding portrait for what could have been the hundredth time. "Funny. I can't stop," he admitted with a humorless laugh.

His father stood across the room, head tilted as he studied the photos tacked on Lana's back wall.

"This is all a little hard to swallow. I mean, time travel?" He motioned to the two Lana's who sat side by side on the kitchen counter. "Although you young ladies do make it a little easier to believe."

They nodded in tandem, and smiled the same smile of remorse.

Martha gently took the picture from his hands, and forced him to look at her. "Why didn't you tell us, Clark?"

"I needed some time to deal with it on my own," he said, running his hands through his damp hair. His parents had convinced him to shower and change before they left, and he had to admit he felt better for it. "I'm sorry I scared you."

She gently stroked his face. "No. We're sorry."

"So what happens now?" his father asked. He walked over and took the last seat at the table. "What's the next step?"

The Lana's looked at each other, as if silently deciding who would be the bearer of bad news. "That's the thing, Mr. Kent. There is no next step," the younger Lana spoke up. "Without the scrolls, we're pretty much stuck."

His father turned to the older Lana. "But you said that you've studied those scrolls for years. You must have them memorized by now."

She nodded. "Mostly, yes. But it's the scroll itself that's powerful. Not just the words."

His mother frowned. "So that's it then? That doesn't seem right," she said.

Clark looked down at the sea of images on the table. "Things stopped being right a long time ago."

* * *

Chloe climbed the stairs to the Talon apartment. Her suede bag was heavy on her shoulder, filled with half of Metropolis Library's Latin Section. What wouldn't fit into the bag, she braced in her arms, making the coming task of opening the door a precarious one. She shifted all of the books to one arm and quickly swiped at the knob, pushing forward and stumbling into the apartment.

"Lana, I - " Chloe stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him. "Clark. I didn't know you'd be here."

Chloe found herself, once again, in the uncomfortable position of the accused. It was clear from the scene before her that the Kent's had finally been let in on the secret They now sat as her latest jury, weighing her guilt.

"Well I am. And now you can leave," Clark said, tersely.

Mrs. Kent put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Clark," she chided, but Chloe figured it was more out of politeness than genuine concern for her feelings.

Clark's eyes were cold and unremorseful. They stayed locked on hers. "She doesn't belong here."

"Clark, I know you're upset," Lana informed him hotly, "but this is my home, and I will decide who is and isn't welcome."

Chloe shook her head. "No, it's okay. I'll go." She shrugged off her bag and set it down on the floor, along with the books in her arms, before turning to leave. She stopped, one hand on the door knob. A wave of resentment rose in her. She took a deep breath, and whirled to face him. "Actually I won't."

At her words, Clark grew angrier than she had ever seen him. His jaw line dimpled as he tightly clenched his teeth. He rose from his seat as she walked towards him.

"You know, I've held my tongue this whole time while you used me as your own personal punching bag, because I knew my place in this mess. But I'm sick and tired of pretending that I didn't lose anything."

Clark folded his arms, unmoved. Chloe gestured to the piles of photos around them. On the table. The counters. The wall.

"You sit here, surrounded by these pictures of the future, grieving for a person who doesn't even exist yet. I am the only one here that is actually mourning the girl they just put into the ground. The girl who rescued me from a bully on the playground when I was seven. The girl who took me out for my first drink and held my hair back all night when I had too much." She could see the hurt in his eyes, but this wasn't betrayal. This was the truth.

Tension vibrated in the air as she took another step forward. "You were going to love the woman she became, Clark. But I love her now."

He opened his mouth to argue, but hesitated. After a moment he said, "That doesn't change the fact that you're responsible."

She stood a little straighter and set her chin. "No. It doesn't. I am responsible. But I'm also the only one doing anything about it."

The two former best friends stood in a deadlock as the kitchen clock ticked away each excruciating second.

Finally, it was Clark that broke the silence. "Like what?" he asked. His voice had softened considerably, and Chloe felt herself relax.

"Like reviewing Lana's research. Like pouring over pages of Latin texts. Like logging every single, solitary detail about..." Chloe trailed off. Something flickered in the back of her mind. "Wait."

In a flash she was across the room, tearing through Lana's bookshelves. "Where is it?" she mumbled, more to herself than anyone else. She had all of their curious eyes on her back as she pulled out book after book. Finally, she had what she was looking for in her shaking hands.

As she looked down at the cream colored book, she could feel her heart tripping in her chest. She quickly flipped through the pages, her fingers trembling from the sudden rush of adrenaline. Her head spun at the thought that the answer might finally be within her reach. And when she got to page one, she found it. "That's it."

"What is it?" the younger Lana asked.

Chloe closed her eyes and let the pieces fall into place. "The click," she whispered.

In an instant everything seemed impossibly clear. The once grief-blurred edges of her mind were as sharp as fractured glass. Excited determination shot through her as she spun on her heels and charged towards the others. She pointed to the older Lana.

"Do you remember what I said to you when you first came to see me at the Torch?"

Lana frowned at the memory. "I think your exact words were 'Hey, Time Cop, go bug someone else'."

Chloe waved it off. "No, after that."

Lana though for a moment and then shook her head.

"I asked you that if there really was a big plan, how you knew that what I did hadn't finally set us on the right path," Chloe reminded her. She glanced down at the book and smiled. "I'm convinced now that I was right."

Clark stiffened. "How can you say that? After all that's happened."

She shot him a look. "I said it was meant to happen. I never said I was glad it did."

He scowled and she took that as her cue to explain.

"Why is it that even though our Lois died, we all still remember the Future Lois coming back to save Clark?"

The older Lana flashed her tattoo. "I'm the Guardian. My memory isn't affected by any changes caused by the scroll."

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, but neither Clark nor I bear mark. That means in the future, Lois is still alive. And she's still married to Clark."

"How is that possible?" the younger Lana asked.

"I think this was always meant to happen. The same way Lois was always meant to come back and save Clark. This whole thing was like a detour we were always supposed to make. Like a weigh station on the road to the future.

"If you look at the two stories side by side the one difference is me. I'm the X factor. So where was I in Lana's world if I wasn't in the loft that night with Lois, Lana and Clark?" Chloe turned to the older Lana and held up the book. "Your diary. The one that recounts all events great and small since you found out you were the Guardian. Look at the entry for the day after Lois leaves."

Her thumb held the page open. Lana eyed her skeptically for a beat and then began to scan the passage. After a moment, her eyes grew wide.

"Everything's cyclical," Chloe said with a smirk, echoing what Lana had told her when they first met.

"Oh my god." Th older Lana looked up in disbelief. "We fix this."

Martha looked at the pair in confusion. "I don't understand."

"There's another time hop in the cards," Chloe explained.

Clark sighed. "How are we supposed to do that without the scroll?"

"We get another," Chloe said. "The scrolls that the two Lana's had - they were the same exact scroll, just from different points in time. But there are two Scrolls of Templar, right?"

The older Lana shrugged. "Well, technically, yes, but -"

"So we get the other one." Chloe interrupted.

"That's a good plan in theory," the older Lana said, "but I have no idea where we can find it. The second scroll won't be donated to STARR labs until 2008, and even then it will be done anonymously." The scar on her lips twitched as she pursed them tightly.

"So it could be anywhere?" Mr. Kent asked.

Clark turned to his father. "I'm fast, but even I can't search every inch of the globe," he admitted, regretfully.

"You won't have to," Chloe said. Her lips tugged into a self-satisfied smirk. "I know where it is."

"How?"

She shrugged. "Lois told me."

At the sight of five sets of raised eyebrows, Chloe back peddled. "Well, sort of. I've been compulsively reading Lois' Daily Planet articles. There's one where she exposes a faulty subway switch as an act of sabotage. She's able to link the switch to a CEO who had the governor's opponent in the latest election in his back pocket. A connection that had completely eluded the police."

She walked over to the wall of would-have-been and took down the picture of Lois at her Daily Planet desk. She regarded it with appreciation.

"Lois followed the paper trail. Went back to the beginning. Point of origin, you know?"

She turned back to her now captive audience. Her hopeful smile had caught like wildfire, and now touched the lips of every occupant of the tiny kitchen.

"So, where did our story start?"

Clark's brow furrowed. "The caves?" he tried.

Chloe shook her head. "No." She slid a glance the Older Lana's way. "Care to wager a guess, Tattoo Girl?"

The epithet had it's desired effect, and Chloe watched as the Older Lana's face lit up with recognition.

"The tomb," she exclaimed, excitedly. "The tomb of Countess Isabelle Thoreau."

"Exactly," Chloe said. "So we just need to go to Paris and –"

Her sentence was cut off by the loud whoosh of air as Clark shot out through the fire escape.

Mr. Kent turned to his wife. "Since when can our son fly?

Chloe smiled, her eyes on the night sky. "Since he remembered how."

So, I said that this chapter would only resolve 95 percent.

1. Why doesn't the older Lana remember this event if it was always meant to happen?

2. Is the scroll really there?

3. Can they really change things back?

Next Chapter: Zero Sum


	10. Dawn

Part 10: Dawn

_Hello future goodbye past  
Now each breath can be my last  
Will I see another dawn?  
Will I be reborn?_

_Let the sun rise  
Let the birds sing  
Let there be light  
Let there be morning  
I don't know how  
I made it till now  
Let there be light  
Let there be morning_

"_Lois, I can't."_

_She's panting now. Her legs burn, and her feet feel like lead. Some of the sharper rocks have cut into her hand, making it harder to hold on. _

_She looks down and for the first time realizes how high they really are. _

_She looks up to find that Lois has put another few feet between them. _

_She's starting to panic now. She closes her eyes and tries to wish herself off the side of the giant rock. Back to the playground. Back home where her mom would kiss her scrapes and cover them with Snoopy Band-Aids. _

"_Come on, Chloe."_

_Lois is farther away now. Chloe can see the white scuffed soles of her Keds._

_She reaches up and searches for a handhold. She sucks in her breath and pulls herself up onto the thin branch by her knee._

_And then she feels it give. _

_She doesn't have time to scream because Lois has her by the arm. _

"_Come on," she says again, pulling her up by her side. "Watch how I do it, okay?"_

_She nods. She watches her older cousin, just like she promised, and follows her lead._

_Focused on Lois, she forgets that's she's never been more scared in her life. She's trying her best now to keep up. The right foot goes here. The left goes there. And then pull…_

_Before she realizes it, she's made it to the top. Lois helps her over the final ledge, and she scrambles to her feet. _

_For a moment she's speechless. Her cousin has brought her to the top of the world. _

"_Wow." She's finally found her voice. "Everything looks so small." _

"_Daddy doesn't like it when I come up here." Lois walks back to the ledge and sits down. She pulls her knees to her chest. "But it's my favorite place in the world."_

_Chloe sits beside her, but looks away. She has tears in her eyes even though she's tried to stop them. She's a chicken. She wants to be brave, like her cousin. Just like her. But then she hears herself admit, "I didn't think I was going to make it." _

_She feels Lois' arm wrap around her. She's smiling. _

"_I knew you would."_

She smiled when she realized that it was the first time since the funeral that she had let herself think of Lois. Real memories. The ones that wrapped her like a blanket and made the world seem safe again.

She had wondered if she would ever let herself indulge in a happy thought ever again. It seemed like betraying Lois to turn to their old memories for comfort. After all, she had failed her in every way possible. It wasn't new – looking to her big cousin for strength – it was just that after the funeral it was as if she had lost that right.

But it felt okay now. Admittedly, not great, but okay. Imagining Lois was no longer a reminder of what she had lost.

It was a promise of things to come.

"This should be interesting."

Chloe's eyes popped open. The older Lana was beside her now, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she watched the scene unfold in the center of the cave.

The younger Lana and Clark stood side by side, studying the Scroll of Templar. Chloe's hunch had been right. The scroll had, in fact, been in Isobel's tomb. It had only taken Clark a few hours to bring it back to them. Thanks to the flying, he was faster than ever.

Lana held the scroll in one hand and a branch in the other. Her shirt had been pulled up and tied off at her belly button; the small of her back was coated in a sticky, black paste. It was obvious from her expression that she was having a hard time making heads or tails of what she was reading. After a minute she began to slowly trace lines in the dirt.

Chloe turned to the older Lana. "Why is _she_ doing it?"

"I convinced her she needed the practice," Lana whispered back.

Chloe frowned, confused. "But thanks to that mystical glop you whipped up, she won't remember any of this."

Or that's how she had explained it. With two Guardians in one time period, it was a gamble as to who would come out of it with their memory in tact. The last thing they needed was an amnesiac Lana thrown back into the past.

"I know," she said, and then quickly held up her hand to shush her. The younger Lana cursed and scuffed another mistake out of the dirt. The older Lana's smile grew wider.

And then Chloe got it. She was setting herself up. "You're terrible."

Lana looked anything but remorseful. "We're all entitled to beat ourselves up a little bit," she said. And then her eyes zeroed in on Chloe. "Of course, some of us go overboard."

Now it was Chloe's turn to be unapologetic. They were only a few minutes away from hitting that supernatural reset button, but she wasn't quite ready to let go of the guilt. As long as her cousin was in the ground, that was her cross to bear.

She looked up at the cave wall, and soon found herself walking towards it. Her eyes trailed along the bright, chalky drawings.

"Impressive isn't it?" Lana said from somewhere behind her.

Chloe nodded. "It's amazing. Their whole story – past, present and future – all laid out."

"Yours, too."

Chloe's head snapped around. "I'm not on here," she scoffed.

Lana smiled. She brushed past her and pointed to the blue and red figure; the one that looked like it belonged in a sideshow.

"Do you remember what I told you about this symbol?"

Chloe sifted through a week's worth of new information for the answer. "Naman and Sageeth. Friends turned mortal enemies."

Lana nodded. "Their lives are inextricably twined, so much so that a single character represents them both." She traced her finger along the wall until she got to, "Clark's soul mate."

"Lois," Chloe said, a hint of awe and pride decorating her voice.

"Partly."

"I don't understand."

Lana pointed to something right above Lois' head. A small black 'U' rimmed in gold that circled her like a halo. "That's you."

Chloe scrunched her nose. "I'm a boomerang?"

Lana laughed. "It's a moon," she explained. "The Kawatche symbol for guidance."

Chloe stepped forward for a better look. She traced its outline.

"In our lives there is always one person who – more than any other - puts us on our path. Lex pushes Clark to his destiny. You pull Lois to hers." When Chloe finally looked at her, Lana smiled. "In her story, you're her guide. Her guardian."

Chloe's mouth dropped open. "I am?" She let the enormity of that fact sink in. "I don't have to get, like, a tattoo or anything, right?"

Lana chuckled. "No."

Lois' guardian.

Wow.

She had always thought that Lois was the single most important person in her life. As it turned out, it went both ways. Which meant…

She rubbed her hands over her face. "Somehow that just makes things worse."

"Worse?"

Chloe bit her lip. She was afraid to say it out loud but, "What if we go back and change things, and I make the same mistakes all over again?"

She wanted to believe she could trust herself to make the right decision, but she just wasn't sure anymore.

"You won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I lived it." Lana took Chloe by the shoulders. Earnest brown eyes bore into her own. "You weren't ready to deal with the idea of them together. But soon you will be. And when that day comes, you'll be the best friend either of them could ask for."

Chloe looked over at Clark. She imagined Lois by his side. "I don't want to disappoint them again," she confessed.

The older Lana simply shrugged. "Then don't."

She squeezed Chloe's arm and then left to join the others. Chloe turned back to the wall.

For as long as she could remember, Lois was her protector. She hefted the weight of the world for both of them. That was all about to change.

And even if she wouldn't remember it, she made the decision just the same.

Boomerang. Moon. Whatever. She was going to be the best one there ever was.

She felt a hand close softly on her shoulder.

"Chloe, we're ready." Behind Clark's eyes she saw the flickers of friendship and forgiveness. Her chin trembled as she nodded and followed him to the center of the cave.

The older Lana took the scroll from her younger self and stepped onto the symbol that was crudely sketched in the dirt. "I feel like I should be saying something really profound right now, but none of you would remember it anyway," she said with a smirk. She looked down at the scroll and began to read.

As the air began to spark and snap, Chloe felt the doubt creeping back in. This time she fought it, biting down and pushing it off to the darkest corners of her mind.

She believed what Lana had said. It would be different this time.

Chloe closed her eyes as the bright light consumed them all. Tears slipped down her cheeks. In her mind she saw Lois, alive and smiling, motioning for her to catch up.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan popped her car into reverse, and her tires ground stubbornly into the gravel. The familiar hand-carved wooden sign swung invitingly in the cool, night breeze. For a moment she sat considering the alternatives - the mountains of financial aid packets that needed to be filled out and filed; her editorial for Monday's edition of the Torch that was still many drafts away from print-worthy; the prospect of a goodnight's sleep after hours behind the wheel. And then finally, on a whim - a gut-shot choice - she veered off the road that would take her home and –

Stopped.

A woman stood in the middle of the driveway. She wore a violet trench coat that seemed to swallow up her tiny frame, and a silk scarf that wrapped around her head. She jogged over to the driver's side and tapped on the window. Chloe hesitated for a moment before rolling it down a few inches.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but my car broke down a few miles from here. Can I get a lift into town?"

Her eyes were hidden behind a large pair of Audrey Hepburn glasses that eclipsed her whole face. Chloe glanced back to the Kent farm, weighing her options. "Sure. Hop in."

"Thanks."

The woman darted around and slipped into the passenger's side. Chloe shifted into gear and pulled back on the road.

Chloe spent the next few minutes sneaking glances at the mystery woman who seemed perfectly content to sit out the drive in silence. She busied herself with the contents of her large, black bag.

Chloe cleared her throat. "So…are you from around here?"

"No."

Chloe waited for her to elaborate. She never did.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You already did."

"Right. Can I ask another?"

"I suppose."

"Um, I was just curious… why are you wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night?"

"I have sensitive retinas. Halogen lights are the worst, especially headlights on a car. They give me migraines."

"Oh," Chloe said. That seemed…like a great, big lie.

The woman – the one with the terse replies and the 'witness protection chic' – leaned back and gazed out the window. For some reason, Chloe didn't feel half as anxious as she knew she should have. Maybe it was because the woman didn't look large enough to take an infant. Or maybe it was because there was something deeply familiar about her.

"So, what brings you to Smallville?"

"A wrong turn, actually."

"Got lost huh?"

"For a bit," the woman said. She turned to Chloe and for the first time she noticed the large scar that crossed her lips. It twitched as her mouth drew into a smile. "But I think I'm finally heading in the right direction."

* * *

Excerpt from the diary of Lana Lang

_November 12, 2004._

_Chloe's home early from college hunt, deciding on Met U. I can't help but think we avoided a potential disaster the other night. Chloe said that she had planned to drop by Clark's, but instead played good Samaritan to a woman with large sunglasses and a scar on her lips. _

Up next - Epilogue


	11. Epilogue

I just want to say thanks to everyone who took the time to read this story - and give me feedback. It was fun to write - my first big attempt at a serial fic (along w/ Future Tense) - which is probably why I put off writing the Epilogue for so long.

This was always meant as a short little wrap up - just a smattering of call-backs. So, I hope it's at least semi-satisfying.

Here we go…

Epilogue

_Yes, I saw what you did  
I was right there with you  
I won't let you sink  
No, I forgive you_

_Phobic  
Don't be  
Grace needs a little more freedom  
Phobic  
Don't be  
Love needs room to breathe_

- "Phobic" Plumb

_Metropolis University, 2007 – In a Future That Once Again Existed_

"Say cheese."

The couple on the bench pulled each other close and mugged for the camera. Clark nuzzled Lois' neck, sending her into a fit of giggles. Chloe framed the scene in her viewfinder and snapped off the shot.

She lowered the lens and smiled. "That's a keeper."

Lois untangled herself from Clark and sent her cousin a 'no duh' look. "Of course it is. We're a very photogenic couple." She hopped to her feet and pulled Chloe into a tight hug. "I missed you, little cous."

Chloe laughed as she pulled back. "Let's never leave each other again," she exclaimed, dramatically. "How was Daytona?"

Lois smiled. Her features were slightly pinkened, but hardly betrayed a whole week of fun in the sun. So either her cousin had been extra generous with the SPF or…

"Wonderful," Lois gushed, her eyes taking on that glassy, far away look. "Lots of palm trees and sand and –"

"Hardly left the hotel room, huh?"

Lois grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Nope."

"Lois!" Clark exclaimed, his cheeks flushing a red that rivaled his girlfriend's.

"Relax, Smallville. I'm not going to tell her all the sordid details of our sexual escapades…"

"Good."

"…in front of you."

Clark leveled a look at her. "Why do I subject myself to this?" For a minute he seemed to be actually considering this. "Oh, right. I love you."

Lois laughed. "Of course you do. What's not to love?" she challenged lightly. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and punch on the shoulder. It was a twofer Clark had become accustomed to since they had begun dating.

Chloe scrunched her nose in mock distaste. "I'd tell you to get a room, but most likely that'd end up being our apartment and the last thing I need after a long day of classes is to come home to you two practicing your naked tumbling routine. Again."

"What?" Lois scoffed. "It's not like we don't stretch first."

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "That better not be an unwitting reference to where my missing yoga mat has been for the past month."

While Lois plastered on the best look of innocence she could muster, Clark glanced down at his watch. "Oh would you look at the time? I have to be anywhere but here." He leaned in and pecked Lois on the cheek. "I'll see you tonight?"

Lois just nodded before pulling him back down and kissing him thoroughly. When he was finally released from her grips, Clark awkwardly cleared his throat and bumbled off in what was hopefully the right direction, the dopey grin never leaving his face. Chloe feared for any trees that might get in his way.

When he was out of super-earshot Chloe asked, "Any idea what he has planned?"

Lois sighed. "No clue. But you know Clark. It'll probably be completely cornball. I caught him watching _Sleepless in Seattle_ the other night."

Chloe hid her smirk. As much as Lois complained about Clark's romantic tendencies, she knew her cousin secretly loved them. "It's your one year anniversary. I think he's allowed to go overboard."

"It's just that Clark's attempts at romance have a tendency to end in smoke alarms."

"You're the only couple I know whose idea of protection is a fire extinguisher," Chloe chuckled. "Incidentally, has Mr. Kent let you two back in the loft unsupervised yet?"

"No. And Clark's still paying off the damages. It was the most expensive make out session in history."

"And worth every penny."

Lois nodded curtly. "Damn strait."

"Well, whatever Clark has planned, I'm sure it's wonderful and operates within all the necessary parameters of fire safety."

Lois rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Don't pretend you don't know exactly what surprises Farmboy has up his flannel sleeve."

"I may be somewhat in the know," Chloe replied airily. Truth be told, she knew the whole itinerary. From chocolate covered strawberries to a grand tour of the fortress of icicles.

"Just tell me if I need to wear something flame retardant."

"Actually, I think a scarf may be more appropriate."

Lois frowned. "Scarf? It's, like, 80 degrees out."

"How about coffee? My treat," Chloe quickly changed topics, side-stepping that landmine. Clark would likely dangle her off the Daily Planet's globe for fumbling the ball this close to the endzone. If she could just hold out a few more hours then her cousin would finally have her newcomer's chip for Intergalactic Travelers Not-So-Anonymous.

And the days of keeping that pesky secret would be over.

Lois waved off the invitation. "Pass. I woke up early this morning to finish a paper on bridging the digital divide between bloggers and the traditional press, had to go heavy on the caffeine just to get through the first paragraph."

"Lemme guess. Hummingbird?"

"Naturally," Lois drawled. "You know there is something seriously wrong with the world when you have to reference Edward R. Murrow and Perez Hilton in the same sentence."

"Isn't that the second sign of the apocalypse?" Chloe laughed. "Well, how about lunch at the Bagel-ria then?"

This time Lois' eyes lit up. "Now that is an idea I can get behind."

As the two girls began the short trek to the campus café, Chloe couldn't help but stick close to her cousin. Spring break really had been kind of lonely without her.

As if reading her mind, Lois asked, "So what did you do for a whole week without me?"

"Locked myself in my room with all the curtains drawn and wrote free verse poetry about the gaping void left in my life."

"Uh-huh."

"My personal favorite was 'Lois went away, now I spend each day, with a bottle of Grand Marnier.' Although the syntax was a little clunky."

"Stick to your day job, Chlo."

Chloe just laughed before rattling off her real list of humdrum activities. "I got a lot of work done. Met with some professors about summer credits. Finished off the last few shots for my final portfolio in photojournalism class."

"Am I being replaced?" Lois tugged on Chloe's camera strap. "That Nikon D2H hasn't left your neck all semester."

Chloe's fingers fidgeted with the aperture ring. "I admit I was a little reluctant to attempt a journalistic endeavor that didn't involve a pen and paper, but, I don't know. I guess I found out I kinda like it. Capturing moments. Telling a story through images. -"

"Acquiring blackmail," Lois tossed in.

"The list goes on."

"Well, I guess it does have its upsides," Lois agreed. "I definitely need a copy of that last shot."

"Will do. I'll just have to remember to make triples." Chloe pulled a slip of paper from her bag and jotted down the note.

"Triples?" Lois asked.

"I give copies of all the pictures I take to Lana," Chloe explained. "She's fostered an unhealthy obsession with scrap booking. I think she even took a class."

Lois raised an eyebrow. This was new. "Are we talking about the same Lana that went on a two day Parisian bender and ended up with a tattoo?"

"Yeah, well, she is also the girl currently working as an assistant to the librarian at the Metropolitan Institute. She's apparently an individual of many layers."

"Still, can't say I saw that one coming. The only crafts Lana's ever engaged in have been of the witch-y variety," Lois countered. "Unless this time around she's possessed by the spirit of Martha Stewart."

"Martha Stewart isn't dead."

Lois shrugged. "Details."

"People change. Evolve. It's not like 3 years ago you ever would have believed you'd end up dating Clark Kent of all people."

"This is true."

"I think we were all a little blindsided by that one."

The day Clark had approached her for help in pursuing Lois, Chloe had sworn he'd taken a big swig of the red K kool aid. At first blush Lois and Clark looked about as compatible as caramel and catfish; the brash city girl and the dorky farmboy were hardly the poster couple for likely love connections. But as Chloe began to really watch them, if only to catalogue just how bizarre it would be if they ever did fall in love, she came to recognize that at some point, when she wasn't looking, they already had.

And that somehow, it made a weird kind of sense.

Chloe glanced over to find Lois deep in thought. She was chewing her bottom lip, pensively, as if debating her next words.

Finally Lois stopped and asked, "Do you ever think about what it would be like if things had been different?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like if I never came to Smallville. If maybe, post-Lana, Clark had turned to you?"

And there it was. The question that seemed to loom over them, unasked for fear of what the answer may be. Chloe knew that it was always present somewhere in the back of Lois' mind, no matter how supportive she had been of their relationship. For her part, Chloe never addressed it either. Perhaps a little frightened of what a thorough investigation of her true feelings might reveal.

It seemed that, finally, for whatever reason, Lois wanted to hear the unvarnished truth.

On Lois' first day back after a long week apart, this really wasn't the direction Chloe had hoped their homecoming chat would go. But Lois' anxious expression told her there was no skirting the topic now.

So Chloe closed her eyes and asked herself the hard question: had she ever imagined a world in which things had in fact veered in another direction? Led to another destination?

And when she was done Chloe had come to a wonderful realization.

"You know," she said, turning to Lois. "I really haven't."

Lois let out the breath she had been holding, and smiled brightly. She slung an arm around Chloe's shoulders, ushering her through the front doors of the Bagel-ria.

And that was that.

"Oh, hey. Can I borrow your red heels for tonight?"

Chloe nodded. "Sure. But you might want to bring along your rubber boots," she advised as she leaned into her cousin's embrace. "The forecast is calling for rain."

END


End file.
